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Dwight Lyman Moody's

/i
LIFE WORK AND

GOSPEL SERMONS

AS DELIVERED BY THE GREAT EVANGELIST IN HIS
REVIVAL WORK IN GREAT BRITAIN AND AMERICA.
TOGETHER WITH A BIOGRAPHY OF HIS CO-LABORER

IRA DAVID SANKEY.

Handsomely Illustrated from Gustave Dore.

Edited by RICHARD S. RHODES.

"Behold I bring you good tidings of great joy,
Which shall be to all people."— Luke ii: 10,

CHICAGO:
RHODEvS & McCIvURB PUBLISHING CO.

1900.

II I! I! II II II II II I! II II II II II II

88816

Library of Congress

Two Copies Received
DEC 15 1900

SECOND COPY

Oeiivvred to

0RD£R DtVtSION
JAN 10 1901

Entered according to act of Congress in tbe year 1900 by the

Rhodes & McClure Publishing Company,
in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, Washington, D. C.

The Rev. Dr. N. D. Hillis, of Plymouth Church, Brook-
lyn, says in a letter to the "Interior" of Dwight L. Moody's
life, work and sermons in part as follows :

"For the republic, the roll call of s:lf-made men is long
and brilliant. Orators like Clay come in from the corn-
fields, statesmen like Webster come from the bleak hillsides
of New England, presidents like Lincoln come forth from
the university of rail-splitting, the inventors, merchants, and
editors come in from rural districts and villages, and all are
the architects of their own fortunes. But among all this
group of men whose life in low estate began on a simple
village green, none is more thrilling in its struggles, more
picturesque in its contrasts and more pathetic in its defeats
and victories than that of the great evangelist. An orphan
at four, one of the props of the family at nine, at nineteen a
clerk in a shoe store of Chicago, at twenty-three the foun-
der of a Young Men's Christian Association, where he slept
on the benches because he had no bed, and bought a loaf at
the bakery because he had no money for board. At twenty-
four, the superintendent of a Sunday school in a deserted
saloon, where his pupils were drunkards, tramps, ragamuf-
fins, mingled with street waifs and boys from a newsboys'
home ; at forty, the most widely-talked-about man in Great
Britain, where his friends were coll ge presidents and pro-
fessors, authors, editors, statesmen, scientists, like Drum-

PREFACE.

mond and Lord Kelvin. Returning home, in Philadelphia
he found that merchants had erected for his meetings a
building seating ten thousand people, an event that was re-
peated in New York, Boston, Chicago, and many other
great cities in our land. At fifty-three he founded a training
school for young men and women in Chicago that has sent
out fifteen hundred workers ; a school for young women at
East Northfield, and for young men at Mount Hermon, in-
stitutions that now have for their work more than a score
of great buildings. Thrilling, indeed, this story. It repeats
the experience of young David, who passed from the sheep-
cote to the king's throne, and the scepter of universal sway.
" 'Where were the hidings of his power ?' you ask. From
nothing, nothing comes. Blood tells. A great ancestry ex-
plains a great man. The time was when men thought God
called the prophet. But when God wants a John the Bap-
tist, he calls not the son, but the father and mother, and
they ordain the child in the cradle, and before the cradle.
When the Hebrews were in bondage in Egypt, one mother
there was brave enough to dare the king and hide her babe
in an ark, amidst the bulrushes, and the mother's courage
repeated itself in the greatest of jurists, Moses. Hannah
was a dreamer who loved solitude, and walked the hills
alone with God ; whose eyes 'were homes of silent prayer,'
and her religious genius repeated itself in her son Samuel,
one of the greatest of the judges. What was unique in
Timothy, Paul tells us, was first of all unique in his mother
Lois, and his grandmother Eunice. And the greatest evan-
gelist since Whitfield had his power through th: ordain-
ment of a great ancestry. He was of the best New England
stock. His father had the fine old Puritan fiber, and his
mother, widowed with her little flock about her, exhibits
almost unparalleled heroism, courage and hope in the hour
of suffering and trouble. For the tides of power in this man

PREFACE.

flow down from the anectral hills. Among his birth gifts
was the gift of perfect health and a perfect body, with stores
of energy that seemed well-nigh inexhaustible.

"His, also, was the gift of common sense, a mind hungry
for knowledge, a reason that saw clearly or saw not at all ;
moral earnestness, sincerity, self - reliance, courage, wit,
humor, pathos, an intuitive knowledge of men, the genius
for organization. Like Isaiah, he had a quenchless passion
for righteousness. Like Daniel, he had the courage of his
convictions in the face of fierce opposition. Like Paul, his
enthusiasm for men made him the herald of righteousness
to foreign nations. Like Bernard, his was the crusader's
heart, organizing his hosts against passion, ignorance and
sin. Without the eloquence of Spurgeon, without the fine
culture of Phillips Brooks, without the supreme genius of
Mr. Beecher, Mr. Moody was a herald, a man sent forth
from God, who calkd the unchurched classes to repentance,
who flamed forth on them the love of God in Christ. For
nearly six y:ars, it is said that Mr. Moody's audiences aver-
aged five thousand each afternoon and evening, a record
that has never been surpassed in all the history of evangel-
ism. 'Our bishops,' said the London Telegraph, 'have back
of them a state income, great cathedrals, a small army of
paid helpers and musicians, but where our bishops have
reached tins this man has reached hundreds.'

"If preaching is man making and man mending, then Mr.
Moody was a veritable prince among preachers. In view of
the great audiences of 15,000 people that thronged into, or
about, the hall in Kansas City, where he preached his last
sermon, all must confess that no preacher in the land since
Mr. Beecher's time was comparable to Mr. Moody in per-
sonal popularity, or in power to hold the masses. Any
student skilled in the art of reading human nature, who has
been upon the platform beside the great evangelist, and

PREFACE.

while listening to his words has noted their effects upon
the faces of the vast audience before him, must make haste
to affirm that Mr. Moody knew the human mind and heart
as a skillful musician knows his instrument, and sweeps all
the banks of keys before him. In the addresses that were
given no element of great speech was lacking. Mr. Moody
moved his audience from tears to laughter ; for laughter
and tears are outer signs of inner thoughts and feelings.
Life is determined by the emotions of the heart quite as
much as by the arguments of the head. No matter how
scholarly or intellectual the preacher may be, he is at best a
second-rate preacher whose truth burns with a cold, white
light. Truth in the hands of an intellectual philosopher
who has found his way into the pulpit cuts with a keen edge,
indeed, but truth in Mr. Moody's hands has been heated
red hot, and the edge of his sword burns as well as cuts, like
the Word of God, dividing between the joints and marrow
and separating the sinner from his evil deeds.

"No misconception can be greater than to suppose that
Mr. Moody has succeeded in spite of his lack of theological
preparation. My old professor of dogmatic theology criti-
cised me harshly during my student days for going to hear
Mr. Moody on Sunday morning. Because the great evan-
gelist was a layman, and unordained, this distinguished
theologian said that he declined to attend any of Mr.
Moody's meetings during his great campaign in a city in
which this professor had formerly resided. It is true that
Mr. Moody had never crossed the threshold of college or
theological seminary. Moreover, in his enthusiasm he
often used the vernacular, homely idioms, and in every ser-
mon broke some of the laws of grammar or of rhetoric. But
nothing is risked in the statement that it was a great good
fortune for him that he never found his way into a theo-
logical seminary. Nevertheless, he was a past master in his

PREFACE.

chosen art. He reached men, not because he knew so little
about preaching, but because he knew so much. Could
some scholar take a volume of Mr. Moody's sermons, and
condense his thoughts, methods, appeals and illustrations
into a volume of homiletics, the book would be so large and
comprehensive that the ordinary work on the art of preach-
ing would not make an introduction thereto. Taken all in
all, for the work of an evangelist this man represents more
culture and more thought about the methods of reaching
the common people than any other man in his generation.
To him it has been given to meet all the great preachers of
the day, and to work with them. His was also the power
of selection from each Spurgeon, or Maclaren, or Brooks,
or Beecher, and from each he selected his special gift and
excellence. Having spent eight months of each year in
working with the foremost pastors at home and abroad, he
has had four months in summer for study and conference.
Those who have seen Mr. Moody's library know that this
man has been a student of books as well as men. Super-
ficial, indeed, the judgment of those who think that Mr.
Moody was without education, or training, or logic, or
knowledge of preaching as a science. With him preaching
became a fine art, an art that conceals the art. Did our
theological seminaries multiply their three years of study
by two, they could not hope to equip their students as long
study and experience with men and books have equipped
Mr. Moody. The methods the great evangelist adopted
gather up the experience of twenty years of working with
the greatest preachers of England, Scotland and America.
Perhaps of all the arts and occupations in our age, not one
is comparable to the art of preaching. It demands the
highest talent, the deepest culture, tireless practice and
complete consecration. And happy the generation to whom
God gave this herald of good tidings, this friend of the

PREFACE.

common people, this messenger to the unchurched multi-
tudes, who followed him as their leader along those paths
that lead to prosperity and peace, to Christ, man's Savior,
to God, man's Father."

"In his life and actions Mr. Moody was as bold and fear-
less as in his sermons and revival exhortations. There was
no place he would not go, no duty he would not undertake,
if he felt that he could accomplish good."

With the earnest prayer that God's blessing may accom-
pany the reading of the great evangelist's life, work and
sermons, this volume is dedicated to the public.

RICHARD S. RHODES.

Chicago, 111., January i, 1900.

PAGE

Biography of D. L. Moody i

Moody and Sankey in Great Britain xiii

Moody and Sankey in the United States xxiii

Mr. Moody at Northfield xxvii

Mr. Moody's Sickness and Death xxxiv

The Funeral at East Northfield xxxviii

Biography of Ira David Sankey xLii

What is Christ to Me? 17

Faith 36

k^ffcppTrkance 54

Excused 77

No Room for Hirn 100

Their Rock is not our Rock 116

Tekel 136

No Difference 158

Grace 177

Why Halt Ye? 197

$on, Remember 216

v'Be not Deceived 235

Love 249

Where Art Thou? 266

uWhat Think Ye of Christ? 285

Preach the Gospel 306

Heaven 327

Heaven, No. 2 347

What seek Ye? 365

Blessed Hope 379

The Worldly Professor 399

Peace 412

Assurance 418

The Promises 429

Confessing Christ 434

PAGE

D. L. Moody opposite i

Mr. Moody Preaching in the Royal Opera House,

Hay market, London xiii

Chicago Tabernacle, Erected for Mr. Moody's Services. xxiii

Ira D. Sankev opposite xiii

" [ Am the Way" 16

The Following Illustrations from Gustave Doee

Raising of the Daughter of Jairus 37

Jonah Calling Nineveh to Repentance 55

The Expulsion from the Garden 76

The Nativity 101

Moses Breaking the Tables of Law s 117

Belshazzars Feast 137

Saul's Conversion 159

Jesus and the Woman Taken in Adultery.... 176

Daniel 196

The Murder of Abel 217

Joseph Sold into Egypt 234

The Betrayal. 248

Satan in Paradise 267

The Sermon on the Mount 284

The Last Supper 307

Beyond 326

The Heavenly Choir 346

Jesus Healing the Sick 364

The Star in the East 378

The Destruction of Sodom 398

Leah 413

The Prophet Amos 419

Isaiah 428

The Widow's Mite 434

DWIGHT LYMAN MOODY.

Dwight Lyman Moody, the lay evangelist, was born
in the town of Northfield, Massachusetts, on the fifth of
February, 1837. He came of the old Puritan stock; his
father's and mother's families being numbered among the
earliest settlers of that state. His father, Edwin, owned
a comfortable farm-house just without the town, and a
few acres of stony land, the whole encumbered by a
mortgage. When the building trade was brisk, he worked
as a stone-mason, and his leisure hours he spent in culti-
vating his little farm. But his spirit was crushed by re-
verses in business, and he died suddenly after an illness
of a few hours. Dwight was then only four years old,
but the shock of that death made an impression on him
which he declares he has never forgotten. This blow
was followed by the birth of a twin boy and girl a few
weeks later. Thus Mrs. Moody was burdened with the
care of seven sons, and two daughters, of whom the
eldest boy was only aged fifteen. Yet this widowed
mother refused to part with any of her little brood. She
bravely set about caring for them all, and contrived to
have the little hands earn something for their support, by
tilling the garden and doing odd jobs for the neighbors.
She taught them every day a little Bible lesson, and
always accompanied them to the Unitarian church and
Sunday-school.

ii DWIGHT LYMAN MOODY.

Another sorrow came on the bereaved family, through
the oldest boy becoming a runaway. We give Mr.
Moody's description of this incident, as he told it in Eng-
land, and because of the insight it gives into his home
life.

' ' I can give you a little experience of my own family.
Before I was four years old, the first thing I remember
was the death of my father. He had been unfortunate
in business, and failed. Soon after his death the cred-
itors came in and took everything. My mother was left
with a large family of children. One calamity after an-
other swept over the entire household. Twins were
added to the family, and my mother was taken sick. The
eldest boy was fifteen years of age, and to him my mother
looked as a stay in her calamity, but all at once that boy
became a wanderer. He had been reading some of the
trashy novels, and the belief had seized him that he had
only to go away to make a fortune. Away he went. I
can remember how eagerly she used to look for tidings
of that boy; how she used to send us to the post-office to
see if there was a letter from him, and I recollect how
we used to come back with the sad news, ' No letter.' I
remember how in the evenings, we used to sit beside
her in that New England home, and we would talk about
our father; but the moment the name of that boy was
mentioned she would hush us into silence. Some nights
when the wind was very high, and the house, which was
upon a hill, would tremble at every gust, the voice of my
mother was raised in prayer for that wanderer who had
treated her so unkindly. I used to think she loved him
more than all of us put together, and I believe she did.
On a Thanksgiving day (you know that is a family day

DWIGHT LYMAN MOODY. Ill

in New England) she used to set a chair for him, think-
ing he would return home. Her family grew up, and her
boys 'left home. When I got so that I could write, I
sent letters all over the country, but could find no trace
of him. One day while in Boston, the news reached me
that he had returned. While in that city, I remember
how I used to look for him in every store; he had a mark
on his face, but I never got any trace. One day while
my mother was sitting at the door, a stranger was seen
coming toward the house, and when he came to the door
he stopped. My mother didn't know her boy. He stood
there with folded arms and great beard flowing down his
breast, his tears trickling down his face. When my
mother saw those tears, she cried, ' O, it's my lost son,'
and entreated him to come in. But he stood still. 'No,
mother,' he said, ' I will not come in until I hear first
that you have forgiven me.' Do you believe she was not
willing to forgive him? Do you think she was likely to
keep him long standing there. She rushed to the thresh-
old, threw her arms around him, and breathed forgive-
ness."

Young Moody, at the age of seventeen, left North-
field, with his mother's permission, to seek employment
in Boston, where his uncle was in business, as a shoe
merchant. Mr. Holton engaged his country nephew with
some reluctance, and on two conditions. The lad agreed
to be governed by his advice, and to attend regularly the
Sunday-school and services of the Mount Vernon Con-
gregational church. Its pastor was the eloquent and
learned Dr. E. N. Kirk, who, in earlier years had ac-
complished much good as an evangelist. The lad was
not much impressed by the preaching, which he was not

iv DWIGHT LYMAN MOODY.

qualified to comprehend; but the personal efforts of his
teacher, Mr. Edward Kimball, were blessed to his con-
version. Many years after, he told the story of how he
was saved. " When I was in Boston, I used to attend
a Sunday-school class, and one day, I recollect a Sab-
bath-school teacher came round behind the counter of
the shop I was to woik in, and put his hand on my
shoulder, and talked to me about Christ and my soul. I
had not felt that I had a soul till then. I said, ' This is
a very strange thing. Here is a man who never saw me
until within a few days, and he is weeping over my sins,
and I never shed a tear about them.' But I understand
it now, and know what it is to have a passion for men's
souls and weep over their sins. I don't remember what
he said, but I can feel the power of that young man's
hand on my shoulder to-night. Young Christian men,
go and lay your hand on your comrade's shoulder, and
point him to Jesus to-night. Well, he got me up to the
school, and it was not long before I was brought into the
kingdom of God." Years afterward, when Mr. Moody
was preaching in Boston, he was permitted to lead to
the Savior a son of that teacher, who found peace in
believing just at his own age of seventeen. Thus the
seed sown on the waters bore in due time the sweetest
fruitage for the sower.

The young convert was unpromising enough at first
in outward appearance. He knew very little of the
Scriptures, and he was not grounded in evangelical truth.
Besides, his bashful shyness in the presence of cultured,
refined Christians, his poor command of words to ex-
press his thoughts, and his broken, awkward sentences,
made him, in the language of his teacher, very "un-

DWIGHT LYMAN MOODY. V

likely ever to become a Christian of clear and decided
views of gospel truth, still less to fill any extended sphere
of public usefulness." Therefore, it was that he was not
accepted into membership until May, 1856, a year after
his first application. He remained but a few months
longer in Boston. He longed for a wider field of use-
fulness, where his energy in business and religious work
would be less trammeled. So, in September, 1856, he
betook himself to Chicago with testimonials, which
secured him a business engagement as salesman in the
shoe trade. He also entered the Plymouth Congrega-
tional church, and showed his earnest spirit by renting
four pews, which he kept filled with young men and boys.
He desired to work in the service of prayer; but the
brethren were not patient enough to suffer his crude ex-
perience, and suggestions were not infrequent that he
could best serve the Lord by silence.

Mr. Moody's first start in the work of reaching souls
was obtained through a little mission school. He offered
himself as teacher, and was told he might attend if he
would bring his own scholars. So that week he collected
together some eighteen ragged boys, and marched in at
their head on the next Sunday. He liked such work so
well that he set about further visitations in the by-streets,
and soon had the school filled. He also busied himself
in distributing tracts, and in looking after the good of
the seamen at the wharves. His ardent spirit soon im-
pelled him to set up a mission for himself, in a neglected
and degraded section of North Chicago. He paid for
the hire of an empty tavern, and gathered together the
unclean and rude children of the neighborhood for Sun-
day-school services, while the intemperate and ignorant

VI DWIGHT LYMAN MOODY,

adults were reached in the evening meetings. The poor
little ones were won over to attention by gifts of maple
sugar, and a liberal lot of hymns and stories. Just at
this time, Mr. Reynolds, of Peoria, visited this humble
mission. His description of the service is invaluable, as
illustrating the progressive growth of the lay evangelist
in strength and usefulness. "The first meeting I ever
saw him at," he said several years since, "was in a little
old shanty that had been abandoned by a saloonkeeper.
Mr. Moody had got the place to hold the meetings in at
night. I went there a little late, and the first thing I
saw was a man standing up, with a few tallow candles
around him, holding a negro boy, and trying to read to
him the story of the prodigal son; and a great many of
the words he could not make out, and had to skip. I
thought, if the Lord can ever use such an instrument as
that for his honor and glory, it will astonish me. After
that meeting was over, Mr. Moody said to me,
' Reynolds, I have got only one talent. I have no edu-
cation, but I love the Lord Jesus Christ, and I want to
do something for Him. I want you to pray for me.' I
have never ceased from that day to this, morning and
night, to pray for that devoted Christian soldier. I have
watched him since then, have had counsel with him, and
know him thoroughly; and, for consistent walk and con-
versation, I have never met a man to equal him. It
astounds me when I look back and see what Mr. Moody
was, and then what he is under God to-day. The last
time I heard from him, his injunction was, ' Pray forme
every day ; pray now that the Lord will keep me humble. ' "
Henceforth, missionary efforts were the uppermost
concern in his daily life. The growth of his school led to

DWIGHT LYMAN MOODY. Vll

the occupation of the North Market hall, and John V.
Farwell, a liberal merchant, who supplied benches for the
scholars, had the grace to become its superintendent.
Under Moody's vigorous canvassing, the average attend-
ance was kept up to six hundred and fifty, and sixty
teachers were obtained. His engagements as a traveling
salesman were not suffered to interfere with these Sunday
duties, and he was rarely compelled to be absent. As
the hall was used till a late hour on Saturday night for
dancing, it was his custom for six years to clean out the
dirt, and put the room in decent condition for the ser-
vices. And he took care to let his light shine wherever
he went. He feared neither drunkards nor rumsellers,
deists nor infidels, for he felt himself a match for any ad-
versary when armed with the sword of the Spirit, and
strengthened by prayer. When the children of Roman
Catholic parents stoned his windows, he at once sought
redress of their bishop, and so won his confidence by a
devout simplicity of spirit that immunity was secured for
the future. His courageous avowal of his faith was
startling to timid believers. When he was solicitous
about the salvation of an acquaintance or a stranger, he
hesitated not to kneel, and offer prayer for his conver-
sion then and there, no matter whether they were out in
the streets or traveling in a railroad car. His faith and
spirit of consecration waxed stronger by the study of
God's word and the constant fruitage of his life in good
works. In i860, after a time of soul-searching in prayer,
he determined to give all his time to God as an evangel-
ist. When his employer inquired how he expected to
support himself, he replied, "God will provide for me if
He wishes me to keep on, and I shall keep on till I am

Vlll DWIGHT LYMAN MOODY.

obliged to stop." His impulse in this personal work for
souls was derived from the zeal of one of his teachers,
who was dying of consumption, and who was permitted,
before his death, to lead every one of his large class to
the Savior. He reduced his expenses to a minimum by
doing without a home, so that he slept on a bench in the
room of the Young Men's Christian association, and
spent but little for food. After a time, contributions
came to him from friends, and he was appointed a city
missionary, so that his means for assisting the destitute
were much enlarged. He commenced then to fulfill a
vow by speaking to one unconverted man every day.
Sometimes his tender approaches were rejected with
scorn and cursing, but again and again persons who had
vilified him were drawn by the power of a conscience
under conviction to seek the intercession of his prayers,
that they might be led to the Savior,

In the spirit of reliance on the leading of the Lord, the
evangelist was married, on the 28th of August, 1862, to
Miss Emma C. Revell. This Christian lady was a help-
ful assistant in his meetings, and her sympathy made
their little fireside a refuge of rest to him amid his toils.
For years their home was a small and plain cottage. But
its hospitality become proverbial, for gospel-workers and
reclaimed prodigals were entertained without stint. The
gift of a daughter and a son made the father more sus-
ceptible to the thoughts and impulses of a child-life. He
took care always to remain in close communion with
their budding minds, and his sermons often have graphic
illustrations of the methods he took to make them familiar
with the fundamental truths of the faith. Meanwhile his
daily living was wholly committed to the providence of

DWIGHT LYMAN MOODY. IX

God. His mind was absorbed in watching over the souls
of the throngs about him, and he obeyed the Scriptural
injunction to take no anxious thought for the morrow.
He lived the placid life befitting a child of God, having
the trustful faith that his Father would supply his needs
while he was busy as a worker in His vineyard. One
morning he said to his wife, " I have no money, and the
house is without supplies. It looks as if the Lord had
had enough of me in this mission work, and is going to
send me back again to sell boots and shoes." But a day
or two later brought to him two checks, one of fifty dol-
lars for himself, and the other for his school. He ac-
cepted this gift as a token from the Lord that he was
held in favor. This instance was but one of many of a
similar character. His unselfish labors raised up for him
many friends, and these gave him, on New Year's day,
1868, the lease of a pleasant and furnished house.

This whole season was one abounding in labors. Be-
sides his army services, Mr. Moody was keenly alive to
the needs of his mission at the North Market hall. His
school numbered a thousand scholars. The congrega-
tion he had gathered together now contained three hun-
dred adults converted under his preaching. Thus had
grown up, wholly without human design, a stanch and
inseparable congregation under a lay pastor. This was
organized as an independent fold, on the basis of the
evangelical faith. In 1863, a church building was
erected on Illinois street, at a cost of $20,000. Never
had a people a more faithful and energetic pastor to
watch over their welfare. Nor was he in the least for-
getful of the Young Men's Christian association of Chi-
cago. By his efforts its noon services for prayer were

X DWIGHT LYMAN MOODY.

attended steadily by a thousand people. When its mem-
bers were intent on obtaining a permanent hall, they
elected him president in 1865 . Their expectations were
fulfilled by the speedy erection of Farwell hall, and
its dedication on the 29th of September, 1867. That
building was destroyed by fire within a few months, but
his exhaustless energy soon reared a second edifice on the
same site. On Sunday evenings he used to preach in its
hall after spending the morning in his own pulpit, and in
the afternoon superintending ten hundred school children.

When Farwell hall was dedicated, as "the first hall
ever erected for Christian young men," Mr. Moody con-
fessed his faith that, by the Lord's blessing, a religious
influence was to go out from them that " should extend
through every county in the state, through every state
in the union, and finally, crossing the waters, should help
to bring the whole world to God."

Mr. Moody has been for years peculiarly a Bible
Christian. Again and again friends have suggested to
him certain courses of study, or the reading of particular
books. But the pressure of his active duties as an evan-
gelist has always intervened and prevented him from
making any effort for the attainment of a theological
education. Hence, he has been providentially driven to
depend upon his personal study of the Bible itself, as its
own best interpreter. The solemn injunction of Holy
Writ to "preach the word," and the word only, was
impressed upon his mind by Harry Morehouse, "the
boy preacher," of Manchester, who told him, " You need
only one book for the study of the Bible. Since I have
been an evangelist, I have been the man of one book. If
a text of Scripture troubles me, I ask another text to ex-

DWIGHT LYMAN MOODY. XI

plain it; and if this will not answer, I carry it straight to
the Lord." He met this lad, then aged seventeen, in his
first visit to England and Ireland in 1867. A few months
later, Morehouse visited Chicago, and delighted Mr.
Moody by delivering seven Bible readings upon the love
of God. He brought a multitude of passages to illustrate
the depth of spiritual meaning in the text of John, iii, 16,
which Luther has well termed "the little Gospel." This
intercourse came to him as a new revelation of the won-
ders of God's word and love. From that time his two
accepted guide-books were Cruden's Concordance and the
little Bible text-books. These aids enabled him to trace
any word or doctrine through the Holy Scriptures. In
Mr. Moody's second visit to England, in the spring of
1872, he learned from the devout Plymouth Brethren to
appreciate and appropriate the promises which abound
in the Bible of the second coming of Christ. " I have felt
like working three times as hard," he has stated, " since
I came to understand that my Lord was coming back
again. I look on this world as a wrecked vessel. God
has given me a life-boat, and said to me, ' Moody, save
all you can.'" He was also impressed by the prediction
of Henry Varley, the Bible reader, " It remains for the
world to see what the Lord can do with a man wholly
consecrated to Christ. " Again, at another time, he
heard one Christian ask another of himself, "Is this
young man all O. O.?" meaning, " Is he out and out for
Christ?" He has confessed that this question burned
down into his soul, and taught him that it meant a good
deal to be O. O. for Christ.

The terrible fire of October, 1871, which swept Chi-
cago into a whirlwind of flame, laid in ruins all the build*

Xll DWIGHT LYMAN MOODY.

ings that were associated with his labors. It also sepa-
rated from him his yoke-fellow, Mr. Ira D. Sankey, who
had joined him as a gospel singer only four months be-
fore. But the evangelist was not cast down. Contribu-
tions came to his aid from his friends at the east in an-
swer to his appeals. Within three months he had a
large frame tabernacle erected, measuring seventy-five
by one hundred and nine feet. All his services were re-
sumed, and the building also served as a storehouse of
supplies for the impoverished district. His plans were
laid out for the completion of a permanent church edi-
fice, and an appeal for aid was made to the Sunday-
school children of the land. While this was in progress,
the two yoke-fellows, after a patient waiting on the
Lord for guidance, accepted an invitation to visit the
British isles as evangelists. Mr. Moody, after four
months of self-searching inquiry, had made an entire
consecration of his life to the Lord, and was fired with a
baptism of the Spirit which, as he avowed later, made
him eager "to go round the world and tell the perish-
ing millions of a Savior's love. "

P
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pel

w o

MOODY AND SANKEY IN GREAT BRITAIN.

The mission of the gospel preacher and the gospel-
singer to the British Isles was one of implicit faith and
of unselfish zeal for the saving of sinners. The secret
motive of Mr. Moody was " to win ten thousand souls
to Christ." As far as worldly inducements were con-
cerned, the circumstances were such as to forbid, rather
than to favor, the venture across three thousand miles of
sea. No influential association had extended an invita-
tion to them, not a single individual had offered to help
meet their personal expenses. Nor did these two com-
panions, though they were about to take their families
with them, expect or desire such a guarantee. They
were united in the purpose to commit their ways entirely
unto the Lord. To that end, they agreed beforehand to
accept no payment for their services from any person or
committee, and as well to refrain from any collections
or enterprise for money-making. In such a spirit, they
set forth, and on the 17th of June, 1873, they
landed at Liverpool. There news met them that two of
the three gentlemen who had invited them to England
had died. The third, who lived at York, advised them
to delay a month, but instead they hastened to that town
the same night. All things human combined to dis-
courage them. But their utter weakness was the promise

xiii

XIV MOODY AND SAN KEY IN GREAT BRITAIN,

of success, for it gave the Lord the opportunity to glorify
Himself by the mouth of His chosen messengers.

Mr. Moody stood forth a plain man of the people. He
was in thorough sympathy with the concerns of the great
mass of humanity, and able to express religious truth in
homely, vivid speech. He possessed a stalwart body,
and a grand vitality, which qualified him to undertake
tremendous toils without danger to his health. A man
of excellent executive capacity, and trained in the details
of secular and religious business, he was able to organize
enterprises on a vast scale, and to direct a multitude of
assistants, so that congregations of many thousands
could be handled as quietly as an ordinary assembly. A
natural, self-reliant man, warped by neither pride nor
vanity, he was wont as a speaker to forget his own in-
dividuality in the hunger of his heart for the salvation of
his hearers. A student of the Bible alone, and an un-
questioning believer of its every statement as coming
from the Lord; an evangelist bravely equipped for his
responsible calling by years of personal experience with
inquirers and doubters; a man of prayer, who was often in
secret communion with the Lord of Hosts, refreshing his
strength for the perpetual conflict of life; he was also,
as the full fruition of these characteristics, a Christian
closely conformed to the image of his Master by the in-
dwelling Spirit of God, and because he had withholden
no part of his nature from an unreserved consecration to
His will.

This ministry for preaching and singing the gospel
began in the cathedral town of York. At the first
prayer-meeting, held on Sunday morning, in a small room
of the Association building, only four persons were pres-

MOODY AND SANKEY IN GREAT BRITAIN. XV

ent; and Mr. Moody has characterized that as the best
service he ever attended. The clergy looked coldly on
the evangelists as intruders, and most of the churches
were closed to them. They labored on bravely against
these discouragements for a month, and were comforted
by seeing above two hundred converts to Christ. Their
work at Sunderland began on Sunday, July 27, at the
invitation of a Baptist pastor. The ministers still held
aloof, and even the Young Men's Christian association
eyed them suspiciously for a week before offering the
hand of fellowship. But the meetings steadily waxed
larger.

The evangelists were invited to Newcastle-on-the-
Tyne, by the chief ministers of that town, and were
heartily sustained by the leaders of the congregations.
And now Mr. Moody confessed his hope. ' ' We are on
the eve of a great revival which may cover Great Britain,
and perhaps make itself felt in America. And why may
not the fire burn as long as I live? When this revival
spirit dies, may I die with it." His prophetic words met
an immediate fulfillment. All the meetings were thronged
with attentive listeners, and as many as thirty-four ser-
vices were held in a single week. A noonday prayer-
meeting was organized, while special efforts were made
to reach the factory hands and business men. An all-
day-meeting was held on September 10, wherein
seventeen hundred participated. One hour was spent in
Bible reading, another on the promises, and the last in
an examination of what the Scriptures teach concerning
heaven. The town was wonderfully awakened, and every
night sinners were drawn to the uplifted Savior.

Edinburgh was prepared for the manifestation ot a

XVI MOODY AND SANKEY IN GREAT BRITAIN.

signal blessing by a series of union prayer-meetings, held
in October and November, which softened and unified
the hearts of Christians of various names. Hence it
was that the evangelists were welcomed in such a spirit
of sympathy that captious criticism was unthought of.
The ministry of song was an unheard-of innovation.
Yet the rooted aversion of the Scottish people to the
singing of aught but psalms gave way quickly to the
evident testimony of the Spirit to the spirituality of His
messages and the tenderness of His voice. On the first
day, Sunday, November 23, the Music hall was thronged
with two thousand auditors, and many more were ex-
cluded. Five hundred met at noon on Monday for
prayer, and that attendance was soon doubled. Meet-
ings for inquirers was held after each service. Three
hundred in the first week confessed their sins had been
forgiven. Their ages ranged from seventy-five to eleven.
Students and soldiers, poor and rich, the backsliding, in-
temperate, and skeptical, were all represented. The
largest halls were found to be too small to accommodate
the eager audiences. A striking case of conversion was
that of a notorious infidel, the chairman of a club of free-
thinkers. He declared his utter disbelief in the value of
prayer, and defied Mr. Moody to test its power on him.
The evangelist accepted the challenge in faith, and re-
membered him continually in his petitions till he heard
of his finding Christ, months afterwards. An impressive
watch-meeting was held on the last night of the year,
1873, and a special blessing was besought for the British
people. The week of prayer, from the 4th 'to the
nth of January, 1874, was observed throughout all
Scotland, as a season of united prayer for invoking the

MOODY AND SANKEY IN GREAT BRITAIN. XV11

Lord to visit the nation and the entire world in mercy.
The most remarkable feature of this revival has been de-
scribed as "the presence and the power of the Holy
Ghost, the solemn awe, the prayerful, believing, expect-
ant spirit, the anxious inquiry of unsaved souls, and the
longing of believers to grow more like Christ; their hun-
gering and thirsting after holiness." Similar characteris-
tics have marked the advent of these yoke-fellows in
every community. This mission in Edinburgh, which
lasted till the 21st of January, 1874, resulted in
adding three thousand to the city churches.

At Dundee, meetings were held in the open air, at
which from ten to sixteen thousand were present. Four
hundred converts attended the meeting for praise and in-
struction. The city of Glasgow was reached on Sunday,
February 8. The first audience consisted of three
thousand Sunday-school teachers; the prayer-meeting
opened with half that number. The Crystal palace,
which held above five thousand, was always crowded,
though admission could only be had by ticket. To meet
the emergency, special meetings were organized for
young men and young women, inquirers, workingmen,
and the intemperate. Seventeen thousand signatures to
the pledge were secured here. So the work of awaken-
ing went on for three months, steadily increasing in
power. On the last Sunday afternoon, a great audience
of some twenty or thirty thousand gathered in the palace
garden, and hung on the words of Mr. Moody, as he
spoke from the seat of a carriage. More than three thou-
sand united to the city congregations, the large propor-
tion of whom were under twenty- five. Short visits wore
then made to Paisley, Greenock and Gourock. In the

XV111 MOODY AND SANKEY IN GREAT BRITAIN.

summer a tour was taken through the Highlands, for the
sowing of the seed of the word. Meetings were held in
the open air at Perth, Aberdeen, Inverness and else-
where, and many souls were won. In Ireland, the com-
mon people heard the preacher gladly. The good work
began at Belfast, on Sunday, September 6, 1874. To
reach as many as possible, separate sessions were had for
women and for men, for professing Christians, for the
unconverted, and for inquirers, for young men and for
boys. Huge gatherings were also addressed in the Bo-
tanic gardens, a space of six acres being filled with atten-
tive hearers. On Monday, September 27, a remarka-
ble meeting of eight hours for inquirers was held, where-
in above two hundred young men came unto Jesus and
took His yoke upon them. And when the young con-
verts were collected into a farewell-meeting, tickets for
2, 150 were granted to such applicants.

Dublin, five-sixths of whose inhabitants were not Prot-
estant, awoke into a newness of religious life on the ad-
vent of the evangelists. From the 25th of Octo-
ber to the 29th of November, the whole city was
stirred in a wonderful way. The great exhibition palace
contained audiences in the evenings and on Sundays of
from twelve to fifteen thousand. At the prayer-meetings
and Bible-readings, the number often exceeded two
thousand. Many Roman Catholics were attentive
listeners, and parish priests as well. The stillness of
these vast assemblies was very marked. Truly the Lord
was faithful in answering the prayer Mr. Moody continu-
ally offers in private, "O God, keep the people still, hold
the meeting in Thy hand." These labors ended with a
three days' convention, at which eight hundred ministers

MOODY AND SANKEY IN GREAT BRITAIN. XIX

attended, from all parts of Ireland. Above two thousand
young converts confessed their new-born faith.

Manchester for eight months had besought a blessing
on its people; and these preparatory services were closed
with a communion in which two thousand Christians
united. The month of December was devoted here to
evangelistic work. In spite of the wintry weather, the
halls were crowded, and overflow meetings had to be
organized. Here, as elsewhere, the large proportion of
men in attendance was noticeable. The city was mapped
out into districts, and the duty of distributing cards at
every dwelling was assigned to a large corps of volun-
teers. On one side of these was printed the hymn
' 'Jesus of Nazareth passeth by;" and on the other, a
short address by Mr. Moody, his text being Revelations,
iii, 20. The efforts of the Young Men's Christian asso-
ciation to purchase a suitable building met with a cordial
indorsement, and a fourth of the entire amount needed
was obtained at the first public meeting.

In Sheffield, the scheme of house-to-house visitation
had to be abandoned, in order to secure the co-operation
of the clergy of the Church of England. The opening
meeting was held on New Year's eve, and the address in
that watch-night service was upon " Work." The great
congregation, in response to Mr. Moody's request, finished
the old year and began the new on their knees. For a
fortnight, the dwellers in this industrial town collected in
such numbers as to pack the halls and the sidewalks
about them, so that the evangelist had frequently to
speak in the open air. The work at Birmingham, "the
toy-shop of the world," was also limited for lack of time.
The spacious Town hall was crowded on January 17,

XX MOODY AND SANKEY IN GREAT BRITAIN.

1875; and for the other gatherings, even Bingley hall,
which held twelve thousand, proved too small. Another
Christian convention was held, at which above a thousand
ministers attended. Sixteen hundred converts received
tickets to the special meeting for counsel. After pausing
a week for a vacation, these lay apostles began their
ministry of a month at Liverpool on February 7. Vic-
toria hall, a wooden structure able to shelter eleven
thousand, was expressly erected for their reception. It
was. crowded at all the night services, while an average
of six thousand attended the Bible lectures and noon
meetings for prayer. These three services were held
every day except Saturday, when these devoted laborers
took the rest which their over-taxed energies so imper-
atively demanded. The house-to-house visitation was
resumed here, and efforts were made to have a personal
talk with the non-churchgoers. The corner-stone for
the new hall of the Young Men's Christian association
was laid, and a convention held for two days, which was
largely attended by ministers and laymen.

Four months were devoted to evangelizing the gigantic
metropolis of London. Four centers were selected for
preaching; Agricultural hall, at Islington, North London,
could seat fourteen thousand and give standing room for
six thousand more; Bow Road hall, in the extreme east,
had ten thousand sittings; the Royal Opera house, in
the west end, was in the aristocratic quarter of West-
minster; and Victoria theater, in the south, was used
until Camberwell hall was completed in June. This
gospel campaign — the mightiest ever undertaken by an^
evangelist — was preceded by a course of union prayer-
meetings for five months, that the Lord might prepare

MOODY AND SANKEY IN GREAT BRITAIN. XXI

the way for a glorious manifestation of His power by
purging the hearts of His own followers. A private con-
ference w7as also held in advance with fifteen hundred of
the city clergy, in order to explain the usual plan of pro-
cedure, and remove any misapprehensions that might
exist. The whole city was parceled out for canvassing,
and countless bands of yoke-fellows were sent out to
leave at every dwelling the tract drawn up by Mr. Moody,
and to tender an invitation to the services. Among these
laborers was an old woman aged eighty-five years, who
fulfilled her duties faithfully, and met everywhere words
of kindness. This wonderful mission was opened on
Tuesday evening, the 9th of March, at Islington.
For a time, the services were met with mockery and
ribald speeches without, by disorderly men and women.
But the demonstrations soon subsided, as the real piety
of the speakers became evident. Fully eighty thousand
attended the services of the first three days, and forty-
five thousand heard the three addresses on the Sunday
following. At the Royal Opera house, the nobility and
gentry of England were directly reached by Bible-read-
ing, and members of the royal family were frequently
present. The last gospel-meeting was greater than any
preceding, and a great number arose to receive the Lord
Jesus Christ. The final meeting of thanksgiving was
held at Mildmay Park Conference hall, on July 12.
Seven hundred ministers were present to say farewell to
the evangelist, whom they were so loath to see depart.
Dr. A. Bonar testified that the work of increase was still
going on in Glasgow, with at least seven thousand mem-
bers already added to its churches. Other ministers bore
witness to the abundant fruit of the revival. Then, alter

XX11 MOODY AND SANKEY IN GREAT BRITAIN.

silent prayer, the two evangelists hastily withdrew, not
daring to expose themselves to the ordeal of parting with
so many dear associates. They had held 285 meet-
ings in London; these were attended by fully 2,500,000
people; the expenses were $140,000. These companions
came together at the final meetings in Liverpool. They
sailed homeward on the 6th of August^ attended by
many loving prayers, and arrived in New York on the
14th.

MOODY AND SANKEY IN THE UNITED STATES,

The gospel campaign in the union began at Brooklyn,
on Sunday, October 24, 1875, and continued there until
November 19. The rink, on Clermont avenue, which
had sittings for five thousand, was selected for the preach-
ing services, while Mr. Talmage's tabernacle was devoted
to prayer-meetings. A choir of 250 Christian singers
was led by Mr. Sankey.

In Philadelphia, a spacious freight depot, at Thirteenth
and Market streets, was improvised to serve as a hall.
Chairs were provided for about ten thousand listeners,
besides a chorus of six hundred singers seated on the
platform. The expenses were met by voluntary con-
tributions outside, which amounted to $30,000. A corps
of three hundred Christians acted as ushers, and a like
number of selected workers served in the three inquiry-
rooms. At the opening service, early on Sunday morn-
ing, November 21, nine thousand were present, in spite
of a drenching storm. In the afternoon, almost twice as
many were turned away as found entrance. Henceforth,
until the close, on January 16, the attendance and popu-
lar interest never slackened. A special service was held
on Thanksgiving day, and a watch-meeting on New

xxm

XXIV MOODY AND SANKEY IN THE UNITED STATES.

Year's eve, from nine to twelve. Efforts were made to
reach all classes of the community, and the meetings for
young men were specially blessed. A careful computa-
tion puts the total attendance at 9,000,000, and the con-
verts at 4,000. Before leaving the city, a col-
lection was made on behalf of the new hall of the Young
Men's Christian association, and about $100,000 were
obtained. A Christian convention was held on the
19th and 20th of January, and pertinent sugges-
tions about the methods of evangelistic work were given
for the benefit of the two thousand ministers and laymen
in attendance from outlying towns.

For the mission in New York city, the hippodrome at
Madison and Fourth avenues was leased, at a rental of
$1,500 weekly, and $10,000 were expended in its pre-
paration. It was partitioned into two halls, one seating
6,500, the other 4, 000, the intent being to use the second
for overflow meetings, and so bring such large congre-
gations more completely under the speaker's control. A
choir of eight hundred singers and corps of lay workers
were organized. The deep concern of the people to hear
the plain gospel preached and sung was as deep here
among all classes as elsewhere, and the attendance was
unflagging from February 7 to April 19. Again a
Christian conference was convened for two days, at
which Christian workers from the north and east took
counsel together. At the final meeting for young con-
verts, 3, 500 were present by ticket.

Mr. Moody spent two weeks in May with his friend
Major Whittle, at Augusta, Georgia, while Mr. Sankey
took a rest at Newcastle. He preached with his usual
fervor to large congregations. He traveled northward

MOODY AND SANKEY IN THE UNITED STATES. XXV

to Chicago by way of Nashville, Louisville, St. Louis
and Kansas City, holding meetings on the way. His
new church edifice on Chicago avenue was opened on
his arrival. It was a large brick building with stone
facings, measuring 120 by 100 feet, and having a bell-
tower 120 feet high. Its entire cost was $100,000, all
of which was paid before its dedication. August and
September were spent in a visit to the old Northfield
homestead, and in little tours to Greenfield, Springfield
and Brattleboro.

Chicago gave the heartiest welcome to its own Moody
and Sankey in October, where they resumed the mission
work suspended by them three years before. A taber-
nacle was erected which could shelter ten thousand, and
a choir of three hundred singers was organized. The
city pastors gave a most cordial support, and its populace,
many of whom had seen their homes twice burnt to the
ground, were eager to listen to the earnest messages of
free salvation. The great northwest was now moved, as
never before, especially when tidings came of the sudden
death of Philip P. Bliss and his wife, at Ashtabula, on
December 29. Within three months 4,800 converts
were recorded in Chicago.

The evangelical Christians of Boston had long been
waiting on the Lord for a special blessing on their city.
A permanent brick edifice was built on Tremont street,
able to seat a congregation of six thousand. Dr. Tourjee
gathered a body of two thousand Christian singers, and
organized it into five distinct choirs. The thoughtful
addresses of Rev. Joseph Cook were of use in preparing
that cultured and critical city for the advent of the evan-
gelists. And the result of the religious services was

XXVI MOODY AND SANKEY IN THE UNITED STATES.

almost beyond expectation. Instead of a single noon-
meeting for prayer, seven or eight sprang up throughout
the city, with numbers varying from two hundred to
i , 500. Ninety churches co-operated in a house-to-house
visitation, and two thousand visitors were enrolled into
these bands of yoke-fellows. Throughout all New Eng-
land, the quickened activities of the churches were un-
mistakable. And the evangelical faith met a more re-
spectful hearing from its thinking classes than had been
witnessed for a hundred years.

MR. MOODY AT NORTHFIELD.

Shortly after his return to America Mr. Moody had
decided to make Northfield his home, and for some years
was kept busy planning and executing the erection of insti-
tutes and schools that have in later years given Northfield
a world reputation.

Northfield is today the physical evidence of Moody's
greatness as an educator as well as an evangelist. When
in 1875 Moody, accompanied by Mr. Sankey, returned to
America after an epoch-making tour of revivalism in Great
Britain, it was expected that the evangelist would select
Chicago for his home, as it had formerly been. But Moody
had larger plans, and recognized that for the rest of his life
he was to be a world evangelist without an abiding city.
He would have to retire occasionally for a brief respite from
his public labors and provide a shelter for his family. It
was this twin purpose, as described by Mr. Moody himself,
that first turned his thoughts to Northfield, his birthplace,
as a permanent home. Nowhere could a more restful spot
have been found. The trees which line the long, wide ave-
nue in double rows on each side are tall and of vast girth
and in the hottest days create ample shade. The old-fash-
ioned white houses stand some distance from the road and
from each other, and are mostly surrounded with lawns
and flower beds. The old homestead which was Mr.
Moody's birthplace was occupied by his mother until her

xxvii

XXV111 MR. MOODY AT NORTHFIELD.

death a few years ago. It is a plain, old farmhouse, front-
ing upon a country road which branches from the main
street of the village and winds easterly up the hillside tow-
ard a mountainous district. It looks out upon orchards
and meadows and has a large tree in its front dooryard.

When Mr. Moody decided to make a permanent home in
Northfield he bought for about $3,000 a plain but roomy
frame house, with grounds, at the north end of the town
near his mother's house. The building fronts on the main
road. To the building as Mr. Moody found it he made
additions from time to time as they were required. His
study was on the first floor near the entrance. Here was
his working library. A fine clock, much admired by vis-
itors, was sent to him by a lady in England who had been
helped in the Christian life by Moody's illustration of a
pendulum. Everything about the house was characterized
by simplicity and the best conditions of effective work. In
the heart of Northfield Rev. Dr. Pentecost of Brooklyn also
purchased a commodious residence, and still further south
is a modest white cottage which Mr. Sankey also bought
and fitted up as a summer home, to be near his fellow
evangelist.

Mr. Moody was no sooner domiciled in Northfield than
he began to turn his attention to remedying the lack of
educational facilities for the young people of the neighbor-
hood. He was still a tremendous worker in the outside
evangelistic field, but whenever he returned to Northfield
the desire to benefit the young with schooling facilities was
uppermost. His own early education had been deficient,
and it became a fixed purpose of his life to remove a similar
deficiency for the new generation of young people growing
up in Northfield and vicinity. He first planned a school
for girls. He built a small addition to his own house, with
room for eight girls, and when twenty girls had been ad-

MR. MOODY AT NORTHFIELD. XXIX

mitted to these cramped quarters, with others seeking
entrance, he built a small brick dormitory and classroom
on the other side of the street. This was also soon over-
crowded, and Mr. Moody, with the help of H. N. F. Mar-
shall, a retired Boston merchant, bought a hillside farm
adjoining his own and his mother's holdings to the north.
Plans for a building were begun and in 1879 the handsome
brick building now known as East hall was erected.

Its situation is more commanding than any of the other
buildings put up later. It affords a superb view to the
west and north. The foreground is the eastern slope of
the Connecticut valley and the river can be seen at inter-
vals throughout many miles of its winding course. The
western slope of the valley, partly wooded, culminates in a
range of forest-clad hills. In the direction of Vermont is
a wide landscape, fading into distant mountain peaks. East
hall cost about $30,000, was designed as a dormitory and
accommodates sixty students. The small brick building
near Mr. Moody's house was for some time used in con-
nestion with it as a recitation hall. An additional dormi-
tory was remodeled out of a large dwelling house farther
north and named Bonar hall, after Rev. Dr. Bonar of Glas-
gow. This latter building was destroyed by fire in March,
1886.

From the first Mr. Moody had kept down the charge of
board and tuition for his girls to $100 a year. The ex-
pense for each student was about $160 a year, the balance
being made up by benevolent contributions. Applications
increased at such a rate that it was decided in 1881 to build
another large dormitory. Moody was himself absent in
England during most of the next three years, but during
his absence American friends and coworkers put up a large
brick dormitory, costing about $60,000. The building was
finshed in 1884 and was named Marquand hall. Its site is

XXX MR. MOODY AT NORTHFIELD.

to the northwest of East hall. The building is used entirely
as a dormitory and accommodates about eighty students.
About midway between Marquand hall and East hall a
handsome building of brick and granite, called Recitation
hall, was completed in 1885. The cost of the latter build-
ing, like a similar one afterward put up at Mount Hermon,
was borne by the hymn-book fund. Moody used to say
when pointing to either structure: "Mr. Sankey sang that
building up."

In fitting up Recitation hall it was arranged that parti-
tions could be removed and the whole thrown into one
auditorium. This hall has been the scene of many of the
most memorable gatherings in Northfield of later years.
In the same building are chemical, physical and botanical
laboratories. A library building has also been given by
generous friends. Improvements have been made on the
grounds, which now have a parklike aspect. Winding
drives connect the buildings with the main thoroughfare.
The seminary grounds include more than 250 acres. There
is an artificial lake, whose cost was borne by John Wana-
maker of Philadelphia. Many additions and improvements
have been made within recent years, but the seminary rules
are the same as at the institution's humble beginning. In-
stead of scores the pupils are now numbered by hundreds.
The curriculum is as thorough as in most girls' schools,
with the addition of specific Christian training. A graduate
of Wellesley college, Miss Evdyn S. Hall, organized the
original teaching staff, which is still noted for proficiency.

While the Northfield seminary was still in its infant state
Mr. Moody decided to have also a school for boys. His
first purchase for this end was a 400-acre farm in the town
of Gill, about four miles from Northfield, in a southwest-
erly direction, across the Connecticut. He bought 200
acres first for $7,000 and a little later the other 200 acres

MR. MOODY AT NORTHFIELD. XXXI

for $5,500. The Connecticut River railroad traverses the
site. The height upon which Mr. Moody decided to build
his boys' school is now called Mount Hermon. There is
a picturesque drive from Northfield to Mount Hermon.
The river is crossed by a wire-rope ferry and there is tele-
phone communication between the buildings of both insti-
tutions. The money with which the Mount Hermon prop-
erty was bought was the gift of Hiram Camp, who wrote
his check for $25,000.

At first the old farmhouses found upon the place were
used as dormitories. A small wooden building was first
put up to serve as a recitation hall. When more dormi-
tory room was needed Mr. Moody concluded to try the
family system. Instead of housing a large number of boys
in one building they were divided into groups of not more
than twenty and housed in small cottages, each under the
charge of two matrons. In 1885 a large building of brick
and granite, called Recitation hall, was completed and dedi-
cated. It contains class and recitation rooms, library,
chapel and museum. There is a splendid view from the
cupola of this building. After a few years Mr. Moody
changed his plans and raised the age of admission for his
boys to 16 years and enlarged the course of study. This
broke up the family system to some extent, and new build-
ings on a large scale were begun in 1885. In June, 1886, a
large dormitory, called Crossley hall, was dedicated. Later
a large brick dining hall was erected, and within recent
years there have been many additions, making the Mount
Hermon seminary one of the best equipped boys' schools
in the east.

Mr. Moody always had strong views as to the admission
and training of his scholars of both sexes. At Mount Her-
mon the cost of board and tuition was also placed at $100
a year, so that none was barred on the ground of expense.

XXX11 MR. MOODY AT NORTHFIELD.

At Mount Hermon the students have always been required
to perform a certain amount of manual labor in addition to
class work. Some are employed on the farm, some in the
laundry and some in housework. The students are for the
most part a picked body of young, vigorous Christians,
who have been drawn to Mr. Moody's school from all parts
of the earth. There are students from Germany, Scandi-
navia, Turkey, and even American Indians and Japanese.
Of course the main body of students is of American extrac-
tion, and a large proportion of them are in training for
missionary work. Whenever he was at Northfield Mr.
Moody gave regular courses of lectures at both of his
schools, and distinguished educators from all other seats of
learning have been frequent lecturers.

Besides his schools, Northfield, under Mr. Moody's direc-
tion, became the center of gatherings of religious workers,
culminating in the famous summer conventions which were
begun in 1880. For nine months of every year up to the
last year of his life Mr. Moody was engrossed in arduous
evangelistic labor in various parts of the country. His
idea of a vacation was to throw himself into his Northfield
educational work and to plan big conventions which made
Northfield a summer city. He called his first convention
of Christian workers in 1880. The only large building
then constructed was the one now known as East hall, be-
hind which a capacious camp was pitched. Under this
canopy from day to day were held meetings whose influ-
ence was world-wTide.

In 1881 a convention was called for bible study and
continued for thirty days. Rev. Dr. Bonar of Glasgow,
who had just served as moderator of the general assembly
of the Free church of Scotland, was a principal figure at
this gathering. Dozens of equally prominent clergymen
and evangelists attended and Mr. Sankey conducted the

MR. MOODY AT NORTHFIELD. XXX111

singing. For the next three years, owing to Mr. Moody's
absence in England, there were no conventions, but in 1885
there was another August convention. Every year since
they have grown in interest. The attendance has averaged
from 300 to 500 from a distance, and with the people of the
vicinity the meetings often averaged 1,500. Moody was
always the life and soul of these conventions and of late
years many of the most prominent regular pastors in Eng-
land and America have taken part. Special conventions
of college students have also been held under Mr. Moody's
personal leadership. Whether the great evangelist's death
will lessen the fame of Northfield as a convention city is a
melancholy problem for a host of his friends and co-
workers.

MR. MOODY'S SICKNESS AND DEATH.

The famous evangelist was stricken with heart trouble
in Kansas City on Nov. 16, 1899, while holding revival
meetings at Convention hall. He was compelled to give
up his work, and on the day following started east in the
care of a physician.

Mr. Moody addressed great crowds during his stay at
Kansas City. The meetings began on Sunday, Nov. 12.
The crowds were immense, thousands of people filling the
hall afternoon and evening each day. The strain on Mr.
Moody was great. He preached his last sermon on Thurs-
day night, Nov. 16, fully 15,000 people listening to an ear-
nest appeal which many stamped as one of the evangelist's
greatest eflbrts. He was stricken the next morning at his
hotel, but laughingly declared he was all right, and that he
would be able to preach that afternoon.

After he reached Northfield eminent physicians were con-
sulted and everything was done to prolong life.

Conscious up to the moment his eyes closed, well know-
ing his last sleep was about to begin, he died at 11:50
o'clock, Dec. 22, 1899. The end came quietly, peacefully,
at his home in this village, which he loved so well and near
to the scenes of many of his triumphs.

Mr. Moody first knew that the end was very near at 8
o'clock the previous night. He was satisfied that he would

xxxiv

MR. MOODY S STCKNESS AND DEATH. XXXV

not recover, and when the doctor confirmed his own opin-
ion he said :

"The world is receding and heaven opening."

During the night Mr. Moody had a number of sinking
spells. Despite his suffering he was kindness itself to
those about him. At 2 o'clock in the morning Dr. N. P.
Wood, the family physician, who slept in the house, was
called at the request of Mr. Moody. The latter was per-
spiring, and he requested his son-in-law, A. P. Fitt, who
spent the night with him, to call the physician that he might
note the symptoms.

Dr. Wood administered a hypodermic injection of
strychnia. This caused the heart to perform its duties
more regularly, and Mr. Moody requested his son-in-law
and Dr. Wood to retire. Mr. Moody's oldest son, Will R.
Moody, who had been sleeping the first of the night, spent
the last half hour with his father.

At 7 :yj o'clock in the morning Dr. Wood was again
called. When he reached Mr. Moody's room he found
his patient in a semi-conscious condition. When Mr.
Moody recovered consciousness he said, with all his old
vivacity :

"What's the matter; what's going on here?"

"Father, you haven't been quite so well, and so we came
in to see you," a member of the family replied. A little
later Mr. Moody said to his sons :

"I have always b.en an ambitious man — not ambitious
to lay up wealth, but to find work to do."

Mr. Moody urged his two boys and Mr. Fitt to see that
the schools at Northfield, at Mount Hermon and the Chi-
cago Bible Institute should receive their best care. This
they assured Mr. Moody they would do.

During the forenoon Mrs. Fitt, his daughter, said to
him : "Father, we can't spare you." Mr. Moody's reply
was:

XXXVI MR. MOODY S SICKNESS AND DEATH.

"I'm not going to throw my life away. If God has more
work for me to do I'll not die."

Dr. Wood says Mr. Moody did not have the slightest
fear of death. He was thoroughly conscious until within
less than a minute of his death and told his family that as
God called he was ready to go. x\t one time he told the
attending physician not to give him any more medicine to
revive him, as calling him back simply prolonged the agony
for his family. In his closing hours there was no note of
sadness, but one of triumph.

Mr. Moody knew he was going, and he was most serene.
Wednesday night he sent the members of his family out of
his room and sent for his brother, and when the latter came
in he said : "'You know what this means." He told his
brother what he wanted done in many affairs. Friday at
7:45 a. m., when alone with Will Moody, he said: "Earth
is receding ; heaven is opening ; God is calling." Will told
his father it was not as bad as that, and that he was dream-
ing, but Mr. Moody replied: 'No, I am in the gates. I
have seen the children,' referring to his two grandchildren,
who died last year.

"The family was hastily summoned, and as they gath-
ered about his bed he said: 'No pain! No valley! Is this
death? This isn't bad; it is sweet; this is bliss.' Later
he said : 'This is my coronation day, and I have been look-
ing forward to it for years.' Mrs. Moody seemed on the
point of breaking down, and he said to her : 'Mamma, you
were always afraid of sudden surprises. Brace yourself.'

"He told his daughter, Mrs. Fitt, that he was going, and
when she said they could not spare him he answered, sim-
ply : 'God calls.' He was conscious almost to the last, but
when the final summons came he was unconscious. His
family knew when the end was close at hand, and all the
members were present. His last breath was as one breath-
ing in a peaceful sleep.

MR. MOODY S SICKNESS AND DEATH. XXXV11

Dr. Wood says the cause of his death was heart failure.
He adds that the walls surrounding the heart were growing
weaker and weaker.

While it is true that Mr. Moody had symptoms of
Bright's disease a few days ago, his death was due, the
physicians say, to dilation of the heart. There had been
dilation in a gradual way for the past nine years. The
family had been told some time ago that Mr. Moody might
get out and about, but still he was liable to drop away
at any time.

There were present in Mr. Moody's chamber when he
died his wife, his daughter, Mrs. Fitt, and her husband,
Mr. and Mrs. Will R. Moody, Paul Moody, the youngest
son ; Dr. N. P. Wood and Miss Powers, the nurse. Mrs.
Moody has carried herself during the sickness of her hus-
band with the greatest bravery and patience, but when
death came she was prostrated. Will Moody's wife is a
daughter of D. W. Whittle, the evangelist. Paul Moody
is a student at Yale.

FUNERAL AT EAST NORTHFIELD.

The funeral, which was held at his late home Dec. 26,
1899, was in keeping with his life. It was without show,
yet was characterized by deep earnestness. The services
at the house and at the grave were carried out according
to his wishes, and the body was laid to rest in Little Round
Top, where he had conducted so many meetings during his
conference work.

The services began with prayer at the house shortly
after 10 o'clock in the morning. The Rev. Dr. C. J. Scho-
field, pastor of the village church, read Mr. Moody's favor-
ite texts from the scriptures, and the Rev. Dr. R. A. Torrey
of the Moody Bible Institute, Chicago, offered prayer.
The service was held in the parlor and was attended by
many of the men who had been associated with Mr. Moody
in the last years of his work. In the chamber directly
overhead was the family, with the body of the deceased.
Outside were gathered thirty-two members of Mr. Moody's
school.

At the close of the service they placed the casket on a bier
thirty feet long and ten feet wide and covered with black,
and bore it to the Congregational church, a mile distant.
A. P. Fitt, who married Mr. Moody's only daughter, scat-
tered white roses over the casket and bier before the pro-
cession started for the church. In advance of the students

xxxviii

FUNERAL AT EAST NORTHFIELD. XXXIX

carrying the bier walked the Rev. Dr. Schofield and the
Rev. Dr. Torrey, and in the rear were those who had been
among Mr. Moody's closest friends and associates in his
life work, among them Ira D. Sankey.

Close to Mr. Sankey were George C. Stebbins and D. B.
Tower, who for years had led the singing at Mr. Moody's
Northfield conferences. Other well-known men in the
procession were R. C. Morse, representing the International
Young Men's Christian Association; Dr. W. McWilliams
of New Jersey, and W. J. Ordman and George C. Need-
ham of Philadelphia.

It had been arranged that the body should lie in state
at the church from 10 o'clock until after the service, but it
was nearly noon before the sorrowful procession arrived.
The body was placed in front of the little old-fashioned
pulpit and the casket opened. On the plate was the in-
scription :

* +

DWIGHT L. MOODY, 1837-1899.

A floral offering from the bible institute of Chicago was
placed at the foot of the casket, but there was no marked
display of flowers in the church, it being Mr. Moody's wish
that there should not be. The little church was crowded
to the doors, all classes and conditions being represented.
Mr. Moody's favorite hymn, "Rock of Ages," was sung by
the Mount Hermon male quartet.

The eulogy was delivered by the Rev. C. J. Schofield,
who said of the dead evangelist:

"We are met, dear friends, not to mourn a defeat, but
to celebrate a triumph. 'He walked with God, and he was
not, for God took him.' There in the west, in the presence
of great audiences of 10,000 of his fellowmen, God spoke
to him to lav it all down and come home, He would have

XL FUNERAL AT EAST NORTHFIELD.

planned it so. This is not the place, nor am I the man to
present a study of the life and character of Dwight L.
Moody. No one will ever question that we are to-day
laying in the kindly bosom of the earth the mortal body
of a great man.

"Whether we measure greatness by character, by quali-
ties of intellect, or by things alone, Dwight L. Moody must
be accounted great. The basis of Mr. Moody's character
was sincerity, genuineness. He had an inveterate aversion
to all forms of sham, unreality and pretense. Most of all
did he detest religious pretense, cant.

"Along with this fundamental quality Mr. Moody cher-
ished a great love of righteousness. His first question
concerning any proposed action was Ts it right?' but these
two qualities, necessarily at the bottom of all noble char-
acters, were in him suffused and transfigured by divine
grace. Besides all this, Mr. Moody was in a wonderful
degree brave, magnanimous and unselfish. Doubtless this
unlettered New England country boy became what he was
by the grace of God.

"The secret of Dwight L. Moody's power lay: First, in
a definite experience of Christ's saving grace. He had
passed out of death into life and he knew it. Secondly,
Mr. Moody believed in the divine authority of the scrip-
tures. The bible was to him the verse of God, and he made
it resound as such in the conscience of men. Thirdly, he
was baptized with the Holy Spirit and knew that he was. It
was to him as definite an experience as his conversion.
Fourthly, he was a man of prayer. He believed in a living
and unfettered God. But, fifthly, Mr. Moody believed in
work, in ceaseless effort, in wise provision, in the power
of organization, of publicity.

"I like to think of Dwight L. Moody in heaven. I like
to think of him with his Lord, and with Elijah, Daniel, Paul,

THE FUNERAL AT EAST NORTHFIELD. XL1

Augustine, Luther, Wesley and Finney. Farewell, for a
little time, great heart. May a double portion of the spirit
be vouchsafed to us who remain."

The Rev. Mr. Torrey followed Dr. Schofield. His
eulogy was based upon Mr. Moody's life exemplifying the
grace of God. Following Mr. Torrey, remarks were made
by the Rev. H. G. Weston of Crozier Theological seminary,
Chester, Pa. ; the Rev. A. T. Pierson of Brooklyn, N. Y. ;
Bishop Mallalieu of Boston and the Rev. J. W. Chapman
of New York.

The body was then carried to the burial place at Round
Top. The chorus sang "Jesus> Lover of My Soul," and
after prayer and a benediction the body was lowered to its
resting place.

IRA DAVID SANKEY.

In the good providence of God, the gospel preacher
was given the gospel singer, that they might go forth to-
gether, like the first disciples sent out by the Lord — double
for fellowship, single in heart; to labor as yoke-fellows
in the harvest-field in the world. The first, as we have
seen, had been trained in the rugged school of adversity
and self-denial, that he might bebold, self-reliant, patient,
fearless, venturesome in deeds of faith, and tireless in
labors of love, His companion, on the contrary, was
reared under the hallowing influences of a happy, Chris-
tian homestead, so that his whole character was mellowed
by the sweetening experiences of a childhood and man-
hood developed harmoniously and joyously. So strangely
diverse was their training as individuals, yet so wiselv
ordered were all the events of these isolated lives by the
Master's hand, these two Christian workers, when joined
together and tested, were found to be admirably fitted
to supplement each others deficiencies, and thus to con-
stitute a human instrumentality which the Lord could
use for glorifying Himself and extending His kingdom
upon earth.

xLii

IRA D. SANKEY PRESIDING AT THE ORGAN

IRA DAVID SANKEY. XLlll

Ira David Sankey was born on the 28th of August,
1840. His birthplace was the village of Edinburgh,
Lawrence county, in western Pennsylvania. On the
paternal side, he came of English stock, and on the ma-
ternal of Scotch-Irish. His parents were natives of Mer-
cer county, and were members of the Methodist Episco-
pal church. Out of their family of nine children, only
three sons and one daughter grew up to maturity. David,
the father, was well off in worldly circumstances, and in
such good repute among his neighbors that they re-
peatedly elected him a member of the state legislature.
He was also a licensed exhorter of his own church. Thus
the means and the character of this household were such
as to insure ample advantages for culture in general
knowledge and spiritual truth.

Ira, from his childhood, was noted for his joyous spirit
and trustful disposition. The sunshiny face that is so
attractive in his public ministry has been a distinguishing
feature from early boyhood, and very early won him the
praise of being " the finest little fellow in the neighbor-
hood." His father states, " There was nothing very re-
markable in his early or boyhood history. The gift of
singing developed in him at a very early age. I say gift,
because it was God-given; he never took lessons from
any one, but his taste for music was such that when a
small boy he could make passable music on almost any
kind of instrument." An old Scotch farmer, named Frazer,
early interested himself in the little lad, and of his good
influence Mr. Sankey thus spoke, at a children's meeting,
held in the town of Dundee, Scotland. " The very first
recollection I have of anything pertaining to religious
life was in connection with him. I remember he took

XL1V IRA DAVID SANKEY.

me by the hand, along with his own boys, to the Sab-
bath-school, that old place which I shall remember to
my dying day. He was a plain man, and I can see him
standing up and praying for the children. He had a
great, warm heart, and the children all loved him. It
was years after that when I was converted, but my im-
pressions were received when I was very young from
that man."

Thus reared in a genial, religious atmosphere, liked
and respected by all who knew him and accepted as a
leader by his boyish comrades, Ira lived on till past his
fifteenth year, before his soul was converted to Christ.
His conviction as a sinner occurred while he attended a
series of special services, held in a little church, three
miles from his home, and of which Rev. H. H. Moore was
then pastor. At first, he was as gay as his curious com-
panions. But an earnest Christian met him each evening
with a few soul-searching words; and after a week's hard
struggle, he came as a sinner to the Savior and found
peace in acceptance. Soon after, when his father re-
moved to Newcastle, to assume the presidency of the
bank, Ira became a member of the Methodist church
and also a pupil at the academy at Newcastle.

This young Christian was richly endowed with a talent
for singing spiritual songs. His pure, beautiful voice
gave a clear utterance to the emotions of his sympathetic,
joyous nature, and was potent in carrying messages from
his heart to the hearts of his hearers. It now became
his delight to devote this precious gift to the service of
his Lord, and it was his continual prayer that the Holy
Spirit would bless the words sung to the conversion of
those who flocked to the services to hear him. Before

IRA DAVID SANKEY. XLV

he attained his majority, he was appointed superintend-
ent of the Sunday-school, which contained above three
hundred scholars; and it was blessed with a continual re-
vival. His singing of the gospel invitations in solos
dates from this time. The sweet hymns were sung
in the very spirit of prayer, and the faith of the
singer was rewarded with repeated blessings. A class of
seventy Christians was committed to his charge, and
this weighty responsibility made him a more earnest
student of the Holy Bible. He encouraged his class to
tell him of their condition in Bible language, as texts
abounded for every state of grace, and every description
of religious feeling. The choir of the congregation also
came under his leadership. Young as he was, he insisted
on conduct befitting praise-singers in the house of God,
and on a clear enunciation of each word sung.

The congenial religious duties were suspended for a
time by the call of the nation to arms upon the fall of
Fort Sumpter. Mr. Sankey was among the first to vol-
unteer for three months, and he served out his term of
enlistment. Even in camp he gathered about him a
band of singers, and was an earnest worker in the prayer-
meetings of soldiers. Upon his return home, he became
an assistant to his father as collector of internal revenue.
He held that position with credit till his voluntary resig-
nation, nearly ten years later. On the ninth of Septem-
ber, 1863, he was married to Miss Edwards, a helpful
member of his choir, and teacher in his school. Their
happy family now contains three sons, of whom the
youngest was born in Scotland, while the eldest, Henry,
is already a boy evangelist,

Mr. Sankey is an artless, and not an artistic singer.

XLV1 IRA DAVID SANKEY.

It has chanced that he has never studied music under a
cultured teacher, and hence he has always relied upon
his intuitive genius for song. He sings just like a nightin-
gale, and pours forth his whole heart in a flood of melo-
dy. And he does this, not for the sake of winning praise
for the skill of his execution, or for the beauty of his rich
baritone voice. Such a use would be a profanation of
the talent which he has dedicated to the service of his
Savior. His sole aspiration is that his song may be
blessed to the bearing of gospel truth into the hearts of
his audience. Hence he makes each articulation dis-
tinct and audible, sings with the whole wealth of his
heart, and hallows the hymn for good unto souls by se-
cret prayer.

As he sought only to honor his Lord, the latter has
honored him before men. Conventions and other re-
ligious gatherings became eager to have him lead their
services of praise, and he kept all such engagements with-
out making any charge. He assisted in organizing a
Young Men's Christian association at Newcastle, and
was elected president. In June, 1 871, he was appointed
its delegate to the international convention, which met
in Indianapolis. It was there that he first met Mr.
Moody, and heard a call from him to give his whole time
henceforth to working for the Master. At the early
prayer- meeting, the singing was dull and doleful, until
Mr. Sankey was called forward to act as leader. His
sweet voice and fervid spirit at once brought the bold
evangelist to his side. " Where do you live ?" asked Mr.
Moody, bluntly. " In Newcastle, Pennsylvania." "Are
you married?" "Yes." "How many children have
you?" "One." " I want you." " What for? " "To

IRA DAVID SANKEY. XLV11

help me in my work in Chicago. " ' 'I cannot leave my
business." " You must; I have been looking for you for
the last eight years. You must give up your business,
and come to Chicago with me." "I will think of it; I
will pray over it; I will talk it over with my wife."

Prayer and reflection deepened the conviction which
this call made on Mr. Moody's heart. With painful re-
luctance, he severed the associations so dear to him, at
his home, and in the spirit of faith joined Mr. Moody in
his vast labors as an evangelist in Chicago. His tender
sympathy and loving manner qualified him to give just
the sweet melody needed to modulate the fiery boldness
of the lay preacher. Here they worked together in har-
mony, and were blessed with many souls as their hire,
until the city of Chicago was swept by a storm of fire in
the following October. These companions then lost all
their possessions and had to separate. Mr. Sankey now
rejoined his family in Pennsylvania, and set about sing-
ing for conventions again, until a telegram from Mr.
Moody, three months later, to " come at once," recalled
him to the work of the new tabernacle in Chicago. This
disaster strengthened instead of shattering the trustful
faith of these evangelists, for it opened the hearts of the
people more readily to receive their message of the Savior's
love, and made the frame building a sanctuary for re-
lieving the bodily and spiritual wants of multitudes of the
homeless.

Just in the midst of this season of trial Mr. Sankey
was very much encouraged by the testimony of a little
dying girl. This incident, which was destined to have
an effect upon his whole after life, was thus narrated by
him at Dundee, Scotland. ' l I want to speak a word

XLV111 IRA DAVID SANKEY.

about singing, not only to little folks, but to grown peo-
ple. During the winter, after the great Chicago fire,
when the place was built up with little frame houses for
the people to stay in, a mother sent for me, one day, to
come and see her little child, who was one of our Sab-
bath-school scholars. I remembered her very well, hav-
ing seen her in the meetings very frequently, and was
glad to go. She was lying in one of those poor little
huts, everything having been burned in the fire. I ascer-
tained that she was past all hope of recovery, and that they
were waiting for the little one to pass away. i How is it
with you to-day?' I asked. With a beautiful smile on
her face, she said, ' It is all well with me to-day. I wish
you would speak to my father and my mother.' 'But,'
said I, ' are you a Christian?' ' Yes.' * When did you be-
come one? ' Do you remember last Thursday in the ta-
bernacle, when we had that little singing meeting, and
you sang, " Jesus loves even me?" 'Yes.' ' It was last
Thursday. I believed on the Lord Jesus, and now I am
going to be with Him to-day.' That testimony from that
little child in that neglected quarter of Chicago has done
more to stimulate me and bring me to this country
than all that the papers or any persons might say. I re-
member the joy I had in looking upon that beautiful
face. She went up to heaven, and no doubt said she
learned upon earth that Jesus loved her from that little
hymn. If you want to enjoy a blessing, go to the bed-
sides of these bedridden and dying ones, and sing to them
of Jesus, for they cannot enjoy these meetings as you do.
You will get a great blessing to your own souls."

The joy of having this first convert through his own
ministry of song led the gospel singer to a more thor-

IRA DAVID SANKEY. XLlX

ough reliance on the leading of his Master, and a still
deeper study of God's word. When Mr. Moody paid a
visit to England in the spring of 1872, his yokefellow
was naturally left to act as leader in the services at the
tabernacle. His leisure hours, at this time, were spent
in gathering a number of spirited hymns that appeared
to be adapted for evangelistic services, and in fitting a
few of them with appropriate music. These were ar-
ranged into a "Musical Scrap Book," and that was the
only book, besides his Bible, that he took with him on
the voyage of faith across the Atlantic. Among these
sacred songs were P. P. Bliss' " Hold the Fort," " Jesus
Loves Even Me," and "Free from the Law;" Mrs. Dr.
Griswold's " We're Going Home To-morrow;" Mrs. E.
Codner's "Lord I hear Showers of Blessing;" Mrs.
W. S. Ackerman's " Nothing but Leaves;" Rev. S. Low-
ry's "Shall we Gather at the River?" Miss Anna War-
ner's "One More Day's Work for Jesus;" Kate Har-
sley's " I Love to Tell the Story; " Mrs. A. S. Hawks'
"I Need Thee Every Hour;" Mrs. Lydia Baxter's
" Take the Name of Jesus with You;" Mrs. Emily S.
Oakey's " Sowing the Seed by the Daylight Fair; " Fan-
ny J. Crosby's " Safe in the Arms of Jesus" and. "Pass
Me Not, O Gentle Savior;" Rev. Joseph H. Gilmore's
" He Leadeth Me; "and Rev. W. W. Walford's " Sweet
Hour of Prayer."

Two other chief favorites of his selection were " Nine-
ty and Nine'' and "Jesus of Nazareth PassethBy." The
first of these was written by Miss Eliza C. Clephane, of
Melrose, Scotland, in 1868, and was printed a little
while before her death, in the Daily Treasury, edited by
Dr. Arnott. Six years elapsed before it came, provider!-

L IRA DAVID SANKEY.

tially, to Mr. Sankey's notice, while he was in Scotland.
It chanced that he bought among other religious week-
lies a copy of The Christian Age, of London, of the date
of May 13, 1874, and found the ''Ninety and Nine" re-
printed as a poetical waif. He was at once so im-
pressed with its value for his mission of gospel song that
he composed an air for it, and sang it three days later in
the Free Assembly hall, Edinburgh. A letter of thanks
from the sister of the poet gave him the facts of its au-
thorship, and led to receipt of one other precious hymn,
" Beneath the Cross of Jesus." Miss Campbell was the
author of "Jesus of Nazareth passeth by." Her heart
was deeply moved by a revival at Newark, N. J., in
1864, and her imagination was fired by an address by R.
G. Pardee, on the reply to blind Bartimeus: "They
told him that Jesus of Nazareth passeth by." The
second stanza is given herewith, as it is omitted in the
common version:

" E'en children feel the potent spell,

And h«.ste their new-found joy to tell;

In crowds they to the place repair

Where Christians daily bow in prayer,

Hosanna's mingle with the cry;

' Jesus of Nazareth passeth by.' "

In the spring of 1873, two paths of usefulness were
opened to the choice of Mr. Sankey. His brother evan-
gelist desired his aid for a gospel visitation to Great
Britain, while Philip Phillips offered him brilliant pros-
pects for a singing term of six months on the Pacific
coast. His decision was destined to be of great moment
to the welfare of his generation. He looked to prayer
for guidance, and then was led to adopt this advice of a
friend: " Two workers in the same line, especially two
singers, are sure not to agree. Go with Moody; then
you can do your work, and he can do his, and there will
be no occasion of conflict between vou." So attended

IRA DAVID SANKEY. Ll^

by his little family, he trustfully set forth on a journey
of four thousand miles, on a mission of gospel evangel-
ization which was to attain far grander results for good
than one could dare to hope.

The joyous, prayerful singing of the gospel in hymns
by Mr. Sankey came like a revelation of unexpected
truth and grace to the Scottish and English peoples. In
Scotland, especially, to the sujprise of all who are ac-
quainted with the cautious, distrustful and clannish char-
acter of the followers of John Knox, the masses were
moved with an indiscribable impulse. The unimpas-
sioned worshipers, who had been accustomed for gener-
ations to reject as uninspired all other services of praise
than their own rude, unpoetic version of the psalms,
now listened with a hungry delight to the testimonies of
the most gifted Christian singer of the age, His intense
earnestness made the old, old story enter as a divine
message into the consciences and hearts of those who
came to hear him out of curiosity, or as doubters. Thus
the singing of hymns and the use of a melodeon as an ac-
companiment were welcomed at sight with a heartiness
that dissipated the prejudicies of centuries.

One of his hearers, Mrs. Barbour, thus described the
abiding impressions made on his audiences at Edinburgh-
" Mr. Sankey sings with the conviction that souls are
receiving Jesus between one note and the next. The still-
ness is overawing; some of the lines are more spoken than
sung. The hymns are equally used for awakening, none
more than ' Jesus of Nazareth passeth by.' When you
hear the ' Ninety and Nine ' sung, you know of a truth
that down in this corner, up in that gallery, behind that
pillar which hides the singer's face from the listener, the

Lll IRA DAVID SANKEY.

hand of Jesus has been finding this and that and yonder
lost one, to place them in His fold. A certain class of
hearers come to the services solely to hear Mr. Sankey,
and the song throws the Lord's net around them. We
asked Mr. Sankey one day what he was tc sing. He
said, ' I'll not know till I hear how Mr. Moody is clos-
ing.' Again, we were driving to the Canongate Parish
church one winter night, and Mr. Sankey said to the
young minister who had come for him, ' I'm thinking of
singing, ' I am so glad to night.' ' O,' said the young
man, please do rather sing, 'Jesus of Nazareth.' An old
man told me to day that he had been awakened by it the
last night you were down. He said, ' It just went through
me like an electric shock.' A gentleman in Edinburgh
was in distress of soul, and happened to linger in a pew
after the noon meeting. The choir had remained to
practice, and began * Free from the Law, O happy con-
dition.' Quickly the Spirit of God carried that truth
home to the awakened conscience, and he was at rest in
the finished work of Jesus."

" The wave of sacred song, " she added, "has spread
over Ireland, and it is now sweeping through England.
But, indeed, it is not being confined to the United King-
dom alone. Far away off on the shores of India, and in
many other lands, these sweet songs of a Savior's love
are being sung. Mr. Sankey's collection of sacred songs
has been translated into five or six languages, and are
winging their way into tens of thousands of hearts and
homes, and the blessing of the Lord seems to accompany
them wherever sung."

At a noonday prayer-meeting, when the hymn

" Sowing the seed by the daylight fair,"

IRA DAVID SANKEY. Llll

was announced for singing, Mr. Sankey spoke as fol-
lows: " Before we sing this hymn, I will tell you one
reason why we should sing these hymns. It is because
God is blessing them to many a poor wanderer who
comes to this building night after night. Last week a
man who had once occupied a high position in life came
into this hall, and sat down. While I was singing this
hymn he took out his pass-book and wrote out these
words —

" 'Sowing the seed of a lingering pain,
Sowing the seed of a maddening brain,
Sowing the seed of a tarnished name,
Sowing the seed of eternal shame;
O, what shall the harvest be?' "

"Last night, that man in the inquiry-room went on
his knees, and asked God to break the chain that had
dragged him down from such a high position to the low-
est of the low. He said he had resolved when he went
out of that praise-meeting that he would cease to indulge
in the intoxicating cup; but before he went home he went
into a saloon, and broke his resolution. We prayed for
him last night. He is now praying that God may break
his chain. I want to pray that this brand may be
plucked from the burning, and that God may use these
gospel hymns to turn the hearts of sinful men."

A touching account has been given in an English jour-
nal of the last hours of a young girl only ten years old,
who had listened in delight to Mr. Sankey's singing.
" O, how I love those dear hymns," said she. "When
I am gone, mother, will you ask the girls of the school
to sing the hymn:

L1V IRA DAVID SANKEY.

" 'Ring the bells of heaven! there is joy to-day,
For a soul returning from the wild;
See! the father meets him out upon the way,
Welcoming his weary wandering child.' "

The night before her death she said: "Dear father
and mother, I hope I shall meet you in heaven! I am
so happy mother! You cannot think how bright and
happy I feel." Again, " Perhaps Jesus may send me to
fetch some of my brothers and sisters. I hope He will
send me to fetch you, mother."

Half an hour before her departure, she exclaimed,
"O, mother, hark at the bells of heaven! they are
ringing so beautifully. "

Then, closing her eyes awhile, presently she cried
again, "Hearken to the harps! the}7 are most splendid.
O, how I wish you could hear them!"

Then, shortly after, she spoke again, "O mother,
I see the Lord Jesus and the angels! O, if you could
see them too! He is sending one to fetch me!"

She had been counting the hours and minutes since
she had heard the mill-bell at half-past one p. M., long-
ing so earnestly to depart, yet expressed a hope she might
see her dear father (then absent at work) before she went.
At last, just five minutes or so before her expiring breath,
she said, ■ ' O mother, lift me up from the pillow — high,
high up! O, I wish you could lift me right up into
heaven!" Then, almost immediately after, as doubtless
conscious that the parting moment was at hand, " Put
me down again — down quick!" Then calmly, brightly,
joyously, gazing upward as at some vision of surprising
beauty, she peacefully, sweetly, triumphantly breathed
forth her precious spirit into the arms of the ministering
angels whom Jesus had sent to fetch her; and so was for-
ever with the Lord she loved.

I Am the Way.'

MOODY'S

GOSPEL SERMONS.

WHAT IS CHRIST TO ME?

I have selected to-day a subject rather than a text.
We have come to this city to preach Christ, and I want
to commence the services by just asking this congrega-
tion what Christ is to you. And now if we can get right
home to ourselves to begin with, we will save a good
deal of time. One of the most difficult things we have
in preaching the gospel is to get people to hear for them-
selves. They are willing to hear for other people. I
once read of a colored minister who said that a good
many of his congregation would be lost because they
were too generous; and the way he explained it was that
they were too generous with the sermon; that they
generally gave the sermon to their friends and neighbors,
and did not take it home to themselves. And there are
a great many white people, I think, who are just as gen-
erous as the colored people. They are always generous
with the sermon. They are willing to give it to any one.
It is always good for some one else. They are willing
to lend their ears for any one else, but it is very hard for
them to take it home to themselves.

1 8 Moody's sermons.

Now, to-day, we want, if possible, to have every man,
woman and child in this congregation ask this
question, " What is Christ to me? Not to my neighbor,
not to the world, but what is He to me? " Who is He
and what is He? I wish I could just lodge the subject
right into your hearts to begin with. Now, don't think
that will be good for some one behind you. Don't pass the
text over your shoulder to some one else behind you. He
will pass it to some one behind him, and, as is often done,
pass it along out doors, and away it goes; they forget all
about the text, the sermon and everything.

Now, let the question come to each one, "What is
Jesus Christ to me? " I would like to tell you what He
has been to me since I have known Him. And I think if
any man here to-day wants to know Christ, he must first
know him as a Savior. " His name shall be called
Jesus, for He shall save his people from their sins." It
is the only name given under heaven — it cannot be said
of any other man; it is not said of Moses; it is not said
of Elijah; it is not said of any of the prophets or patri-
archs or apostles that they could save men — not any
other name among men under heaven or in heaven that
can save.the sinner, but the name of Jesus.

And if we are to know Him as our redeemer, and if
we are to know Him as our deliverer, and if we are to
know Him as our shepherd, and our great high priest,
and our prophet, and our king, we must first know Him
as our Savior. We must meet Him on the cross first.
We must see Him at Calvary putting away sin, and
when we have seen Him as our Savior, then we go on
and He unfolds Himself to us, and we see Him in a
great many other lights.

WHAT IS CHRIST TO ME? 1 9

Now, He is more than a Savior. I might see a man
drowning. I might plunge into the stream and rescue
that man. I might save the man from drowning, but
then I would leave him there on the banks, and he would
have to make the rest of the journey of life without me.
But the Son of God is more than a Savior. After He
has saved, He not only is with us, but He delivers us
from the power of sin. He is a deliverer from sin. I
believe there are a great many people that have gone
to Calvary. They have seen Christ as their Savior, but
they forget that He is a deliverer, and wants to deliver
them from the power of sin. I don't believe that He
comes down here and pardons us and then leaves us in
prison. I don't believe He comes down here and snaps
fetters and then leaves us in bondage. When the chil-
dren of Israel were put behind the blood down there in
Goshen, God said, ' ' When I see the blood, I will pass
over you." The blood was their savior, the blood was
their salvation. But then He did something more when
He took them out of Goshen, and when He took them
out of Egypt, and away from their taskmasters, and out
of the land of bondage. Then He was their deliverer.
When they came to the Red sea, and the mountains
were on each side of them, and Pharaoh with his hosts
coming on in the rear, and the Red sea before them —
then it was that they wanted a deliverer. And I venture
to say a good many of the children of God have known
what it is to come to the Red sea. You have known
what it was to be where you could only look up and cry
to God to deliver you. You could not turn to the right;
you could not turn to the left; you could not turn back;
and the Almighty God has come and opened the Red
sea, and you have passed over dry-shod.

20 MOODY S SERMONS.

But when He delivered them from the hands of the
king and from their taskmasters, and brought them out
of the house of bondage, and brought them through the
Red sea, He became something else to them; He became
then their way.

Now, you very often hear people say, ' ' I don't know
as I will become a Christian. I don't know really what
church to belong to." They will give that as an excuse.
I have heard more men give that as an excuse, than any-
thing else. They say there are so many different denomi-
nations now, and there are so many different churches,
that they don't know what to believe. I am very thank-
ful that the Lord has not left us in darkness about that
at all. It is no excuse at all. A man can't stand up at
the door of heaven and say " I didn't become a Christ-
ian because I did not know the right way."

Now, people say there are so many different denomi-
nations. "There are the Methodists. John Wesley
was a little nearer right than the rest of you. I will
join the Methodists." Then there are our good Baptist
brethren They say their way is the best way. li. You
had better be immersed and come in through our door. "

And there is our Episcopal brother. He says, " If you
want to come into the true apostolic church, you have
got to join the Episcopal Church."

And up steps a Roman Catholic and says, "If you
want to come into the true apostolic church, you have
got to become a Roman Catholic."

And then there are the Presbyterians, and they tell
you that John Calvin is better than any of them, and
you must go the Calvin way.

And so they say there are so many different denomina-

WHAT IS CHRIST TO ME? 21

tions, so many different ways, that they don't know what
church to join.

Now, my friends, listen to what the Son of God says,
11 I am the way." And if I follow Him I will be in the
right church; He will not lead me into error; He will not
lead me into darkness. He leads out of darkness; He
leads out of bondage. He leads into liberty and into
light, and He is the only man who ever trod on this
earth that it is safe to follow in all things. If I follow
any man but Jesus Christ, I will get into darkness and
bondage. If I follow the isms of the day and nothing
else, they will lead me out into black darkness. But if
I follow the Son of God, He leads me into life and light
immortal out of darkness.

As I walked through this hall yesterday morning, I
stood and looked up there, and I saw a text, and I said,
' ' That is a good text for me. " It says, ' ' I am the way. '
There is life in those words. " I am the way," says the
Son of God. Follow Him, and you will be in the right
church. And when a man is willing to bow his will to
God's will and say, " Lord Jesus, I am willing to follow
Thee, to receive Thee," then he will be in the right
church; there will be no trouble then. He submits his
will to God's will, and submits his way to God's way, and
takes God's way.

You know that God knows a great deal more about
this earth than you and I do. God knew a great deal
more about the pitfalls in the wilderness, and knew all
about that perilous way when He led the children of
Israel. He led them by a pillar of fire by night and a
pillar of cloud by day; and all they had to do was to
keep their eye on that cloud. When the cloud moved,

22 MOODY S SERMONS.

they moved; when the cloud rested, they rested.

Now, all we have got to do is to keep our eye on the
Master. Follow Him. He don't ask us to go where He
has not gone Himself. He don't go around and drive
you and me; but He says, " Follow thou me." And if a
man will become His disciple and follow in His path, he
may put his feet right in His foot-prints and follow Him.

You know out on the frontiers you will find there the
Indian trail; and I am told by some of those men who
have been in that country there, that even over the
Rocky mountains it looks as though only one man had
trod that path. The chief goes on before, and the rest
follow and put their feet right in the foot-prints of the
chief. So the captain of our salvation has gone before
in the path, and if I follow Him I will have the life and
the peace that is promised to every child of God.

But then He is more than the way. You know7 He
might be the way, and the way might be very dark, but
He says, • ' I am the light of life, and if any man follow
Me, he shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the
light of life."

Now, it is impossible for any man to be in darkness
while following Jesus Christ. Why? Because He is the
light of the world. What that sun is in yonder heavens
to the solar system, so Christ is to the spiritual world.
There is a picture in some of your homes. If a man
should give it to me, I don't know what I would do with
it; I would have to put it up the wrong way, the face to-
ward the wall. I don't know what the artist was think-
ing about when he got that picture up. It is a beautiful
work of art, a beautiful steel engraving and represents
Jesus Christ standing at the door of a man's cottage with

WHAT IS CHRIST TO ME? 23

a lantern in his hand, knocking. What does Christ want
with a lantern? You might as well hold a lantern to the
sun. He says, "I am the light of the world." What
we want is to keep our eye right upon Him. He will
give us light. There is no such thing as a man being in
darkness that is following him. If there is a man or
woman in this audience to-day that is in darkness about
spiritual things, it is because they have got away from
Him; it is because they have not followed Him; it is
because they have not got their eye upon Him. That is
what brings the darkness, and what He wants is to have
each one of us just to keep our eye upon Him and follow
Him.

But then I can imagine I hear some of you say, "If
you had the trouble I have had, you would not talk in
that way. If you were in my condition, you would not
talk in that way." I remember, during our war, I was
attending a meeting; it was the first year of the war. Our
armies had been repulsed in the west; had been repulsed
in the east, and it looked very dark. It looked as if
this republic was going to pieces. Every one that got
up to speak at that meeting had his harp upon the willow.
It was a doleful meeting. But at last an old man got up;
he had a beautiful white beard, and he gave us young
men a lecture. Says he, " You don't talk like the chil-
dren of light; don't talk like sons of the King. We be-
long to the kingdom of God." Says he, "There is no
darkness there. If it happens to be dark right around
you, it is light somewhere else. If it is dark down here,
look up; there is the light. Our home is up there."
After rebuking us for our want of faith and our finding-
fault, he said he had just come from the east; that he

24 MOODY S SERMONS.

had been induced by some friends to go to one of the
eastern mountain peaks to see the sun rise. He said he
went to the half-way house and made arrangements with
the landlord to take him up before daybreak, to get into
the mountain to see the sun rise. The guide went
before, holding the lantern. He said they had not been
gone a great while before a storm came up, and it began
to thunder, began to rain, and he said to the guide,
"This storm will prevent my seeing the sun rise this
morning, and you had better take me back." The guide
smiled and said, " I think we will get above this storm,'
and sure enough we got above the clouds and above the
storm. On the mountain peak it was as calm as any
summer evening in his life. As he looked down into the
clouds, he saw the lightning playing up and down the
valley, but he said it was all calm on the mountain peak,
and turning to us he said, " Young men, if it is dark in
the valley, look higher up; climb a little higher up and
get on the mountain peak." And as the highest moun-
tain peaks catch the first rays of the morning sun, so
those who live nearest to heaven — nearest to Christ —
get the first news from heaven. It is the privilege of
every child of God to walk in an unclouded sun, in per-
petual light. I believe it has done more to retard the
cause of Christ and Christianity than any one thing —
our being so despondent, looking on the dark side, leav-
ing the author of life, and light and going in the by-ways
with our heads down like a bulrush. Let us remember,
my friends, that Christ is the light of the world. If we
follow Him we shall not be in darkness, but shall have
the light of life.

It is said of some men away out on the frontier, that

WHAT IS CHRIST TO ME? 2$

when they want to go off in the wilderness hunting,
where there is no road or path, they take an ax or
hatchet, and they cut off the bark of a tree, and they
call that blazing the way. So the Son of God has been
down in this dark world. He has " blazed the way," led
captivity captive. He has traveled this wilderness and
gone up on high. All we have to do is to follow Him.
If we keep our eye right on Him, we will have light all
the while.

I remember when I was a boy I used to try to walk
across a field after the snow had fallen, and try to make
a straight path; and as long as I kept my eye on a point
at the other side of the field, I could make a straight
path, but if I looked over my shoulder to see if I was
walking straight, I Would always walk crooked, always.
And where I find people turning around to see how
others walk, they always walk crooked. But if you
want to walk straight through this world, keep your eye
on the captain of your salvation, who has gone within
the vale. Just keep your eye on Him, and you will have
peace and light.

I remember when I was a little boy, I used to try to
catch my shadow. I used to try to see it. I could not
jump over my head. I ran and jumped, but my head
always kept just so far ahead of me. I never could
catch my shadow, but I remember when I was a little
boy, I was running with my face toward the sun, and I
looked over my shoulder, and I found my shadow coming-
after me.

And I find, since I became a Christian, that if I keep
my eye on the Son of Righteousness, peace and light
and joy, and everything follow in the train; but if I get

26 Moody's sermons.

my eye off Him, I always get in darkness and trouble.
So if you want to keep in the light, keep your eye fixed
on the Son of Righteousness and follow Him.

Now, we have Him as our Savior; we have Him as our
deliverer; we have Him as our way; we have Him as our
truth, because He is the truth. If you want to know
what is truth, Christ is the embodiment of truth; if you
want to know the truth, know Him. There is no error in
Him. He taught no false doctrine. He taught truth.
And if you want to know the truth, know Him. He
says, ■ ' I am the truth. " He is the very embodiment of
it. And if people say, "But I have not got life, I have
not got spiritual power," well, He is the life, and if you
have not got spiritual power, it is because you have not
got enough of Christ. If you want spiritual life more
abundantly, let Christ come into your heart and reign
without a rival. He is the life of the world, and when
man goes away from Him, he goes away from the life
and the power.

But, then, He is something else. Perhaps some of you
have come to a fork in the road sometimes, and you
have not known just which way to turn. I was going to
a little town last month to preach the gospel, and I
came over a bridge, and I came to a road that ran right
across mine, and which way to turn I did not know.
There was no guide-post there, and I did not know
which way to go. Well, I am talking, perhaps, to a
good many in this audience that have come to such a
fork in their spiritual life. You have come to a place
where you have not known which way to turn. Well,
right in here we read that Christ is a teacher. God sent
Him down to be our teacher, to be our counselor and to

WHAT IS CHRIST TO ME? 2J

be our guide, and if we will have Him, He will guide us
and teach us the right thing. He did not teach as the
Scribes did; He taught with the authority God had given
Him. He did not teach opinions. Men come along
now and they teach their opinions. I would rather have,
"Thus saith the Lord," than all their opinions. It is
not what man says, but what God says, and when He
teaches us, my friends, He will teach us the right way.
Therefore we want to take Him as our teacher — our
guide. I have never known a man, I don't care how
skeptical he has been, if he is willing to let the Lord
teach him the way, but what the Lord has taught him.
If a skeptic has come in hereto-day, just out of curiosity,
I would like to get his ear for about five minutes; I
would like to say to him that the God that made you
can teach you if you will let Him. The greatest trouble
with infidelity is its miserable conceit. Infidels are so
conceited that they think they are wiser than Almighty
God; they are not willing to let the God who created
them teach them. They forget that when man fell in
Eden his reason fell with him. They forget that the God
of heaven and earth is greater than their reason, and
that God is above their reason.

I was in a little town in Illinois a number of years
ago, when I first commenced to work for the Lord. I
could not preach, but got up little meetings and talked.
There was a lady came to me just as the meeting was
breaking up, and says, ' ' Mr. Moody, I wish you would
come and see my husband and talk with him about his
soul." Well, I consented. I saw she was greatly
burdened. I went to take down his name. She gave
me the name, and I said to her, ' 4 You will excuse me,

28 Moody's sermons.

I can't go to see that man." She says, " Why not?"
" Why, he is a book infidel; a graduate of one of the
eastern colleges, and I am a mere stripling — a boy; I
can't go and meet him." "Well," she says, " I would
like to have you go, Mr. Moody, and talk to him about
his soul." " Well," I says, " you had better have some
one older; I can't meet him in argument." She says,
" It is not argument he wants; he has had enough of that;
he wants some one to invite him to Christ." She urged
so hard, I went down to see him. I went into his office;
I shook hands, introduced myself, and after I did so I
told him my errand. He laughed at me, thought I had
come on a foolish errand. He did not believe in Christ
or in Christianity; he didn't believe in the Bible. I talked
to him a little while, and brought out some of his infidel
views. I said, ' ' Judge, I will be honest with you; I can't
argue with you; I can't meet you in argument," and the
man seemed to grow two inches right off. It is astonish-
ing how these men do grow when they find somebody they
can handle in argument. I said, " I can't meet you; I will
be frank with you." He had been one of our leading men
in the country, and I knew about his intellect. He had a
very brilliant mind. He had been one of our supreme
judges; he had been mayor of the city he lived in, had
been a member of the state senate a good many years, and
he was a public man; and I said it was impossible for me
to bring forward the arguments that I would like to, and
therefore, he would have to excuse me, and I says,
14 Judge, there is just one favor I would like to ask of
you." Says he, " What is that?" " When you are con-
verted, let me know." " Well," says he, " I will let you
know when I am converted. I will grant that request,''

WHAT IS CHRIST TO ME? 29

with a good deal of sarcasm. I went out of his office,
and I heard the clerks snickering when I went out. I
suppose they thought I had made a fool of myself.

But a year and a half after, I was back in that city. I
was the guest of a friend, and while I was in the sitting-
room, a servant came and said there was a man in the
parlor that wanted to see me. I stepped into the parlor,
and there was the old judge. He says, "When I saw
you last I told you when I was converted I would let you
know. I have come to-day to tell you I have been con-
verted." I had heard it from the lips of others, but I
wanted to get it from his own lips. Says I, " Judge, I
wish you would tell the whole story; tell all about it."
He took his seat and he says, "Well, I will tell you;
my wife and children had gone out to meeting one night,
and there was no one in the house but the servant and
myself, and I got to thinking." I tell you it is a good
thing to get men to thinking; there is always hope of
reaching men if you get them to thinking, especially in
America. They are after the money, and they can't stop
to think. They are on the dead run, and if you can stop
them on a corner and get their attention five minutes you
are doing well in this country. And he got to thinking
and reasoning with himself — and I tell you it is a good
thing to get a man to reasoning with himself. That is
the best kind of reasoning — and he said to himself,
"Well, now, supposing that my wife and my children
are right, and I am wrong. Supposing they are all on
their way to heaven, as they profess to think, and I am
on my way to hell." " Why," said he, "I just dismissed
that thought at once." He said he did not believe there
was any hell.

30 Moody's sermons.

The next thought came, " Well, judge, do you believe
there is a God that created you? " " Yes," he said. " I
believe that. This world never happened by chance.
Everything in this world teaches me that there is an
overruling power, and there is a creator. This world
was not thrown together. There must have been a
creator.'* Then the next thought came, "If there is a
creator, and one that created you, the one that created
you could teach you." " Well," he said, "that is so.
The God that created me could teach me." And he
smiled and said, " The fact was, Mr. Moody, I thought
nobody could teach me. I sat there by the fire. I was
too proud to get down on my knees. I said, " O God,
teach me! " It was an honest prayer. And if there is
an honest infidel here to-day who will make that prayer
out of the depths of his heart, God will teach him more
in five minutes than all the infidels can teach him in
twenty years. He will teach you true wisdom. It is so
reasonable that the God that created the heavens and
the earth can teach mortal men. He said God began to
teach him, and he began to see himself in a different
light. He had been, he said, a very righteous man in
his own estimation. He thought he was one of the best
men that ever lived. But he said he began to see him-
self a sinner. That was something new; and he said
there was a burden right here. He said he had never
felt any burden there before, and he said things began to
look very dark. Things had always looked very bright
before. And he said he thought his wife might come
home and see that something ailed him — that he was
troubled. So he said he went to bed, and he pretended
to sleep; but he did not sleep a wink that night; but be-

WHAT IS CHRIST TO ME? 3 I

fore morning he began to pray, " O God, save me! Take
away this burden of guilt! Take away this load of sin! "
But he said he didn't believe in Jesus Christ; he didn't
want any days-man between him and God; didn't want
any mediator; he was going right straight to the Father;
he was going to settle the question without Christ. But
the load grew heavier, and it grew darker and darker. He
said when the morning came he got up and dressed and
said to his wife he was not feeling very well; he would
not stay at home to breakfast. He wanted to get out of
the way, and went down to his office. The old judge
kept on crying, "O God, take away this burden! O
God, forgive me! " He had waked up to the fact that he
wanted forgiveness like other people. He went into his
office. Men came to see him on business, but he could
not do any business. He tried to tell his clerks what to
do, but could not tell them. He told them they might
take a holiday, and he locked the door of his office and
got down on his knees and cried, " For Jesus Christ's
sake take away this load of sin." He said there was a
bundle rolled off when he arose from his knees, and said
his heart was as light as air. Says he, "I wonder if
this is not what my wife has been praying for these years
— if it is not what the Christians call conversion. I will
go and ask the minister where my wife attends church if
I ain't converted." And he said on the way to the min-
ister's house a text of Scripture came to his mind that his
mother had taught him forty years before. O mothers,
teach your children the word of God; it may spring up
after many years; it may bear fruit unto life eternal after
you are dead and gone. That text of Scripture that
mother taught that little boy in childhood was, "When

32 MOODY S SERMONS.

you pray believe you will receive what you ask for, and
you have it." And he said, " I have asked God to for-
give my sins, and I am going up to ask the minister if
my prayer is answered, I believe that is dishonoring
God. I am a Christian," and he says, " I started home.'
His wife saw him coming. She knew how he went off,
and thought he was coming home sick; she met him at
the door and said to him, " My dear, are you sick?" He
looked up and said: " No, I have been converted." He
says: " Mr. Moody, twenty-one long years that wife
had prayed for me, and she could not believe her ears
when I told her I was converted. She said, ' Come into
the drawing- room.' I knelt down and made my first
prayer with my wife." He erected a family altar. That
old infidel judge said, "Mr. Moody, I have had more
enjoyment in the last three months than in all the rest
of my life put together." If there is an honest skeptic
here to-day let God Almighty be your teacher; ask Him
to teach you; ask Him to give you light beyond the
grave; He has got the power. If you want true wisdom
go to Him, He will open your darkened understanding
and cause you to understand wonderful things. When I
have been willing to let Him teach me I have had per-
fect peace. But whenever I had gone against His counsel
and against His teaching it brought me to captivity; it
has brought me into bondage and into darkness.

When Nicodemus was willing to let that rabbi teach
him, he taught him true wisdom, taught him the doctrine
of the new birth, taught him that he must be born again.

I might go on and speak of him as a shepherd. I have
known him now upwards of twenty years as a shepherd.
He has carried my burdens for me. O, it is so sweet

WHAT IS CHRIST TO ME? 33

to know that you have one to whom you can go and tell
all your sorrows! You can roll your burdens at His feet.
Blessed privilege we have, dear friends, to go to Him
with all our burdens and our sorrows. Surely He hath
borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Think of
Christ as a burden-bearer! What would this world do
without Him? How dark the grave would be without
Him!

I remember making a remark a few years ago that
there was no burden we had but that Christ would carry
it for us if we would let Him. At the close of the meet-
ing a lady pushed her way through the crowd and came
up to me and said, " Mr. Moody, if you had the burden
I have got you could not have said what you did to-day."
" Perhaps not," I said, "but have you got a burden too
great for Christ to carry? " " Well," she said, " I would
not say it was too great for Christ to carry." But she
said, " I can't leave it with Him." "Well, it is your
fault, because He tells you to do it. He commands you
to cast your care upon Him, for He careth for you, for
He numbers the very hairs of your head, and a sparrow
cannot fall to the ground without His knowledge. Do
you think He will not help you in the time of trouble,
that He will not bear your burden and carry your sorrow
if you will let Him?" "Well," she said, "Just hear
me, sir. I am the mother of one child, and that child is
a wanderer. For years I have not heard from him.
Look at these hairs; they are untimely gray. I will soon
go down to my grave. It is crushing me down to the
grave." "Well," I said, " my good woman, don't you
know that Jesus Christ knows where your boy is, and
don't you know that you can reach him this very hour by

34 MOODY S SERMONS.

the way of the throne — that the spirit of God will search
him out, and that boy may be convicted and converted
and brought home in answer to prayer? Go tell it out to
Christ. Go pour out your heart to Him. Tell Him ail
your sorrows. " I told that lady of a case in Indiana.
A boy went from the southern part of Indiana to Chi-
cago. He was a moral young man; and a great many
parents are satisfied if their children are moral; but I tell
you the temptations of city life are too much for any
man who has not got Christ as his keeper. He will be
swept away in the time of temptation. This young man
had not been in Chicago a great many months when a
neighbor came up to Chicago on business, and he found
that young man reeling through the streets, drunk.
When he went back he thought he ought to tell that
father, but he knew it would break his heart, and then
he felt as though he could not do it. He kept it locked
up in his heart for some time, but one day he thought if
that boy was his, and was becoming a drunkard, he would
want to know it. And so he took that father off to one
side one day, and told him what he had seen in Chicago.
It was a terrible blow for the father. He went home that
night, and after the children had been put to bed, and
the wife was sitting by the table at work, and he said to
her, ' ' Wife, I have got some very sad news from Chi-
cago to-day." The wife dropped her work and said,
11 Pray tell me what it can be? " " Our boy was seen on
the street of Chicago by neighbor so-and-so, drunk."
They did not sleep that night. They spent that night
taking that burden away to Jesus Christ. They took
that wandering boy in the arms of their faith to the Son
of God, pleading that their boy might be saved, and that

WHAT IS CHRIST TO ME? 35

he might not go down to a drunkard's grave. About day-
break the mother said, " I don't know where, I don't
know when, I don't know how my boy is to be saved;
but God has given me faith to believe that my boy is to
become a Christian." Her faith rested there. She
carried the burden to the Son of God; and at the end of
the week that boy came home, and the first thing he
said as he crossed the threshold was, " Mother I have
come home to ask you to pray for me," and it was found
that the very night the father and mother were praying
God to touch the heart of their boy, he had become con-
verted.

0 mothers, pray for your boys! Fathers, cry mightily
to God for the children He has given you.

1 wish I had time to take Him up as our shepherd; I
would like to take Him up as our redeemer, as our sanc-
tification, as our justification, as our all in all. I could
not tell you in one short hour what Christ is. It will
take all eternity to tell you what Christ is. I want to
stand here to-day to tell you that He is the best friend
the sinner has got. He is just the friend every man
needs here. If you take Him to be your Savior, your
way, your truth, your life, your shepherd, your burden-
bearer, He will be true to you, and He will carry all
your sins, and all your burdens, and all your sorrows.

FAITH.

Text. — "Bring him unto me." Mark, ix, 19.

We find in this chapter that Christ had taken Peter.
James and John, and had been up in the Mount of Trans-
figuration, and the first thing that met His eye as He
came down from that holy mount was a great multitude
gathered around His disciples and rejoicing — the enemies
of Christ rejoicing over the defeat of the disciples; and
when He made inquiry to find out what had caused the
discussion, one of the multitude spoke up and said, "I
have brought my son to the disciples that they might cast
out an unclean spirit, and they could not do it." They
had not faith.

Now, it strikes me that that is the condition of the
church in this country at the present time. We have
not got power to cast out these devils. I believe men are
possessed of devils now as much as they were in the days
of Christ. I think this rum devil is about as great a
devil as they had in the days of Christ. And you will
find a good many possessed of the rum devil. And then
this infidel devil is as bad as it was in the days of Christ.
These unbelieving devils are possessing men, and what
we want is power to cast them out; and what we want,
it seems to me, is to learn this lesson, "That if we have

K-

Raising of the Daughter of Jairus. Luke, viii, 41-56.

FAITH. 39

failed it is not God's fault, but it is our own fault; and
we want to just get by these obstacles and get right to
the Master Himself.

Turn to Kings, and you will find that in the days of
Elisha he saw that Shunammite woman coming, and he
says to his servant, ' ' Go and ask her if it is well with
the child, and well with the husband." And she said it
was well. Elisha could not understand it. But she
came and threw herself right at his feet, and it was re-
vealed unto Elisha what the trouble was. The child was
dead; but that woman had faith and believed that he
should rise again. There is faith for you! So he said to
his servant, " Take thy staff and go and lay it upon the
child." And they tried to send the woman away; but
she said, ' ' As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I
will not leave thee!" She had got beyond the staff and
beyond the servant, and got right to the Master himself,
and it was well that she did, because the old staff did not
raise the dead child. It needed Elisha himself, and that
woman was very wise. And what we want is to learn
a lesson from the Shunammite woman; but if the dis-
ciples can't cast out those devils, what we want is to lift
our eyes higher up; to lift our eyes to the One sitting
upon the throne, who is unchangeable, the same yester-
day, to-day and forever. Christ has got power; and if
the church will only have faith, we will see signs and
wonders in this city. The Lord is wonderful to save, my
friends; He delights to save. But there is one thing that
He wants among His people, and that is faith. Faith can
do most anything with Jesus Christ. When He was down
here, faith could lead Him around anywhere, andcouldget
Him to do almost anything. And what we want in the

40 Moody's sermons.

church to-day is faith to believe that the Son of God has
power to bless.

When these disciples failed, I can imagine they rea-
soned something like this, ' ' Why, it is a pretty hard
case." One of the disciples says, "I asked him how
long he had been troubled with this deaf and dumb
spirit, and the father said he was born so, and it is pretty
discouraging. If he could only hear us, why then there
would be some hope. If he could only speak and tell us
how he feels, there would be some hope. He can't hear,
and he can't speak. It is a pretty hopeless case." But
see what the Master said when He came down from that
mount. " Bring him unto me." And I tell you if the
Master tell us to bring our friends and those whom we
are anxious should be saved to Him, let us obey this
command. Let us bring them in the arms of our faith
and lay them right at His feet, But there is one thing I
want to call your attention to. That father got the " if"
in the wrong place. He says, " Lord, if Thou canst do '
anything, and the Lord just corrected him and put the
"if" in the right place. "If Thou canst believe, all
things are possible. " You don't want to put any ifs in if
you are going to bring souls to Christ. Don't put in, " If
Thou canst do " anything. The leper we read about in
the fifth chapter of Luke got the "if" in the right
place. He says, " Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou canst make
me clean." That pleased the Master. He said, " I will;
be thou clean." With a word he cleansed him. But
this father got the "if " in the wrong place — " If Thou
canst help us we want help. " See how quick he could
help him when he brought him to the Master. As he
came, the devil tripped him up on the way, as he has

FAITH. 41

done a great many times since. When a man sets his
face to come to Christ, the devil trips him up — throws
him down. But bear in mind, devils and disease and
death are to obey the voice of the Son of God. He
spoke, and that unclean spirit came out of him; and not
only that, He told him to come back no more. I tell
you, if the Lord sent him away, he will never come back.
Some people are afraid if men are converted they won't
hold out. But when the Lord casts out those devils,
and gives them instructions never to come back, they
will hold out. What the Lord does, holds through eter-
nity itself. What man does is very short and transitory,
but when God works He works thoroughly. He gave to
that devil instructions never to come back again, and he
had to obey. There was one thing that the devils had to
do when Christ was here — and He is here now in spirit
— and that was, they had to obey Him.

You turn to the fifth chapter of Mark, and you will
find there the Son of God had power over devils, over
disease and over death. In the fifth chapter of Mark
you will find three incurable cases. If they had them
now-a-days, they would have them in some incurable
hospital. There are hospitals now being erected in some
parts of this country, and there are a good many in
Europe, for the incurable. But there were no incurables
when Christ was here. He was a match for every case
they brought to Him. Here, in this fifth chapter of
Mark, we read of a man who was possessed of devils; he
had legions of them. No man could bind him. No man
could tame him; for they had often bound him with
fetters and chains, but the chains had been plucked
asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces. They

had clothed him, but he would tear the clothes from him,
and they could not keep a rag on his back; there he was
— a maniac. But when Christ met him, with a word He
cast out those unclean spirits; with a word He restored
him back to his family. He said to him, "Go home
and tell your friends what great things the Lord has done
for you." And he went back and began to publish the
great things the Lord had done for him, and all men
marveled. I tell you, there will be some marveling in
this city when God begins to work. That is what makes
men marvel. What we want is to pray God Almighty
to come and work in this city, and cast out these unclean
spirits. And we read a little further, in the fifth chapter
of Mark, of a woman who had an issue of blood for
twelve years. She had suffered many things of many
physicians; grew worse all the while. When men are
running to earthly physicians they grow worse all the time.
When men are trying to patch up their old Adam-nature,
trying to make themselves better, they are growing
worse all the time. When men are trying to save them-
selves and work out their own salvation without the help
of God, trying to work out this great question, they are
all the time making themselves worse. Why, this wom-
an tried many physicians. Perhaps she had been down
to Damascus and tried the leading physicians there, or
had been up to Jerusalem and tried the leading physi-
cians there, and if they had physicians of the old school
and new school, she tried both schools, but kept getting
worse. If they had patent medicines she would be try-
ing every kind of patent medicine; but they did not help
her, all the while growing worse. But one day Jesus
happened to be coming in that part of the country. I

FAITH. 43

can see her getting down her garments, and the children
trying to -persuade her not to go. "Mother, we hope
you are not going to run after that physician. You have
tried so many, and we hope you are not going to waste
your strength by running after that physician." I can
see her put on her garments. I don't know what they
wore in those days, but if she had a shawl, it was an old
shawl. The doctors had got all her money in the twelve
years. She got down her old faded bonnet and away she
went. She is in the crowd, elbowing her way, pushing
her way toward the great prophet. When she gets near
enough to touch Him, able-bodied men push her back,
saying to her, " Don't you know there are other people
here that want to get near Him as well as yourself." She
did not care what they said. She wished that she might
get near enough to touch Him. There was faith for you.
She had faith to believe that if she could just touch the
hem of His garment, she would be made whole. I tell
you when faith was near the Son of God He knew all
about it. And again she elbows her way through that
crowd, and pushes her way up to Him, and, when near
enough, at last she reaches out her thin, pale arm —
nothing but skin and bone. You can see that hand, that
bony finger; and at last she just touches the hem of His
garment, and lo! in a minute, she is made well. Some
one has said there was more medicine in His garments
than in all the apothecary shops in Palestine. The mo-
ment she touched His garments she was healed. That
is faith. Some people say, " O, well, some men have
become so debased, so debauched, are such drunkards,
that it has become a disease with them." Suppose it has
become a disease, God is able to heal. That woman

44 MOODY S SERMONS.

had a disease for twelve years. But a touch, and the
work was done; and He turned and said, " Who touched
me?" And they said, " That is a queer question." Why,
look at the crowd that has been thronging for hours.
Look at the hands that touched Him. They could not
tell the difference between the touch of the crowd and
the touch of faith. Some of the people came and looked
all around, just as some people have come here; they will
be casting around and they will go out as empty as they
came in. But there may be some one that is seeking a
blessing, and he will say, " O, that I may touch Him
to-night, that I may get the power; that I may be healed."

And I tell you if faith is here, He will be here. That
was what He wanted to bring out before those people.
He knew that faith had touched Him, and virtue had
gone forth. He knew who the woman was, but He
wanted to get her confession. And she fell at His feet
and told it all to Him; she had tried other physicians,
but the moment she tried the true physician she was
healed.

Then that other case in the third chapter of Mark.
That was more hopeless than the other two, because the
child was dead. There was no use sending for any phy-
sician; the child was too far gone. But the moment
Christ got in that chamber and met death, face to face,
death fled before Him. He had power to raise the dead.

And so there are some people here in this city who
will say, " There is no use talking to that person. He
is dead to everything that is pure. He is dead to every-
thing that is righteous and holy. " But, my dear friends,
our Savior is a quickener. And what we want is faith to
believe that our Father and Master can raise these dead
souls if we bring them unto Him.

FAITH. 45

Now, if you have got a son who has wandered far
away, and you have become discouraged, and said that
there is no use laboring for his salvation, my dear friend,
bear in mind it is very dishonoring to God. Instead of
looking at these obstacles — looking at the human heart
so hard and thinking it cannot be reached — let us lift our
eyes to Him who sits upon the throne, and remember
that just as He left the earth, He told us that all power
is given to Him in heaven and on earth; and if He has
got such mighty power, can't He save? Is there a man
so far gone in all this city that Christ cannot save him?
Is there a woman so low, and so degraded, and so
depraved that Jesus Christ cannot save her? Away with
the doctrine! My dear friends, He can. He can save
unto the uttermost. Let us hear the voice of the Master
coming from the throne to-night. " Bring him unto
Me." " Bring her unto Me." Let us take them in the
arms of our faith to the Son of God, and have faith to
believe that He has power to cast out, to heal, to cleanse,
to make whole, and to raise even the dead to life.

Now, it seems to me, as He said that to that father,
that we might justly apply this to parents. I will venture
to say that half of this audience here to-night are parents.
Fathers and mothers, let me ask you a question. Are
you not anxious for that child that God has given you, or
for those children? May I not speak to some father here
to-night who has got a wayward boy? Perhaps this hour,
while you are here in this gospel meeting, that boy is
down yonder in some brothel, or some gambling den, or
some drinking saloon. His feet are hastening on down
to death and ruin. Don't you want that boy reached?
Let us have faith to believe that God can save our chil-

46 Moody's sermons.

dren. I do not believe God wants our children lost. I
believe that we can be co-workers with Him. It is a
great privilege, and it is a great opportunity we have of
a united effort — fathers and mothers coming together to
bring their children to the Lord Jesus Christ. And I
believe that if fathers and mothers, during the next thirty
days, make up their minds, God helping them, that they
will bring about this one result, that they will bring sal-
vation to their family, that they will ask the Lord Jesus
Christ to come into their homes and save every member
of their family, God will not disappoint them. And I
believe that if we hear His voice to-night saying, bring him
or bring her unto Me, and obey that command, and we
bring our children to the Lord Jesus Christ, He will bless
them.

I remember a few years ago hearing of a mother who
was dying with consumption, that had seven children,
and when the hour came for her to leave this earth, she
asked the father to bring the children to her bedside, and
the husband brought the children in one by one. The
oldest one was brought in first, and the mother placed
her hand upon its head and gave that child a mother's
dying blessing. Then the next one was brought in, and
she did the same, and gave it a message. At last a little
infant was brought in, and she took her little child and
hugged it and kissed it, and they saw that the excite-
ment was becoming too great for her, and they took the
little child away from her, and as they did it she looked
up in her husband's face and says, " I charge you to
bring all these children home with you." And so the
captain of your salvation and mine charges us to bring
our children home with us. The promises are not only

FAITH. 47

to us, but to our children; and what He wants is to have
you and me have faith to believe that He is ready and will-
ing to do it, and that He will honor our faith. We have
got to work as well as have faith. We must first have
faith. We must first have faith to believe that God will
do it, and then we must work for their salvation; we must
use every means in our power to bring them to a knowl-
edge of Jesus Christ. Let us not only bring them to
God and prayer around our family altars, and in our
closets, and in these public meetings, but, my friends,
let us talk with them; let us try in every way we can to
bring them to the Son of God.

And then let me say another thing. Let us have faith
to believe that they can come early to Christ. I believe
that there are many a father and mother that are skeptical
on this point. They have got the idea that their chil-
dren ought to grow up to manhood and womanhood be-
fore they can be brought to a knowledge of the truth as
it is in Christ.

Many of them have got the idea that they must have
the seed of death sown in their hearts; that they must
have some of these tares sown in their hearts before they
can have the seed of the kingdom; that they have got to
see some of the world, and they have got to be tempted
and led, you might say, into bondage, into sin, before
they can be saved. I believe that is one of the delusions
of the evil one. I believe it is the privilege of every
father and mother to bring their children to Christ so
early that they cannot tell when they came. It is a
privilege for us to take them in the earlier days of child-
hood, when they can just lisp the name of papa and
mamma, and teach them to lisp the name of Jesus Christ,

48 Moody's sermons.

and teach them in their early childhood to love Him and
to serve Him.

I remember, many years ago, I was urging this in the
state of Michigan; an old man jumped up at the close of
the meeting and said, " I want to indorse all that young
man has said. Sixteen years ago I was in a heathen
country. My wife died and left me with three little chil-
dren. The first sabbath after her death, my oldest little
girl — Nellie, ten years old — came to me and says,
4 Papa, may I take the children into the bed-room and
pray for them as mother used to do on the sabbath? ' '
Let me say to you, my friends, there is the power of
example. If I should be called away and leave my chil-
dren in this cold, unfriendly world at an early age, I
would rather have them come to my grave and be able to
say I was more anxious for their eternal welfare than for
their earthly prosperity. Well, this old man said, when
the children came out from the chamber where they had
been praying, he noticed that they had all been weeping,
and he called to his little girl and said, ' ' Nellie, what
have you been weeping about? " " Why," she says " we
could not help but weep. I made the prayer that mother
taught me to make, and [naming her little brother]
made the prayer mother taught him; but little Susie
didn't use to pray. Mother thought she was too little to
pray, and when we prayed, little Susie made a prayer
and we could not help but weep." " What did she say? "
"She put her little hands together and says, ' O God,
you have come and taken away my dear mamma. I
have no mamma to pray for me. Won't you please
make me just as good as my mamma was, for Jesus' sake?
Amen.'" That child, before she was four years old, gave

FAITH. 49

evidence of being a child of God. Fathers, do you sup-
pose your children can come that early?

Mothers, have you got faith to believe that you can
bring your children that early to the Son of God? He
will say to-night, as He did when on earth, ''Suffer
little children to come unto Me, and forbid them not, for
of such is the kingdom of heaven." 'And in this month,
I hope will be a harvest time, let us bring our children
to the Son of God. Let us labor for their salvation.
Father, mother, hear the voice of the Son of God to-
night, saying, " Bring them unto Me." He will not cast
them out. He will bless them.

And then let me say to you, sabbath-school teachers,
this is a grand time for you to work. I never have
known a Sunday-school teacher, in these special efforts
which we have made in cities, who has laid herself or
himself out to bring his class to Christ — I have scarcely
ever known it to fail. This is a grand opportunity now
for you to go and bring the children in your classes to
Him. Perhaps you will say they are too young to be
converted. They are wild, it may be. They are thought-
less. They are careless. They are indifferent. O, let
us not be looking at them, but let us look above and re-
member that the power is yonder, and Christ is the
power. You cannot tell what may be the result of bring-
ing your Sunday-school class to the Lord Jesus Christ.

I remember being in a place a few years ago, and I
was the guest of a friend, and in his house there was a
young lady that had a Sunday-school class in the after-
noon, and I happened to have a meeting the first after-
noon I was there, and I noticed that teacher in my meet-
ing, and when I got home I said, ' ' How was it you were

50 MOODY S SERMONS.

out at the meeting this afternoon? I thought you had a
Sunday-school class. " "Well, so I have, Mr. Moody,
but," she says, "I only have five little boys, and as I
thought it would not do much harm I left them to-day."
Whenever you hear a Sunday-school teacher talking that
way, you may believe that she does not understand the
worth of a soul. Five little boys! Why, dear teacher,
do you not know that in that class there may be a
Luther? In that little tow-headed German boy there
may slumber a reformation. There may come power
upon him that he may go out and be a blessing to the
world. You can't tell when you call a little boy to Christ
what he may become. He may be a Whitefield, or a
Wesley, or a Knox, or a Bunyan. Eternity alone can
tell what is to be done when we bring a soul to Christ.

Now, sabbath-school teachers, this is a golden oppor-
tunity. Let us work together; let us pray together, and
not rest at night until we see those we are responsible for
brought to Christ. Let us labor to bring them to the
Lord Jesus Christ, and if we labor faithfully, He will not
disappoint us.

I remember the inspiration that I got for this work the
very first soul that I led to Christ. I can remember what
a new life was awakened in me, and I trust I have not
been the same man from that day to this, and
I hope there be a great many workers in this city
that will be roused to go out and work for souls. It is
the highest privilege on earth. There is nothing like it
— to be a worker with God; to be instrumental in bring-
ing souls to Christ.

I want to tell you just a little incident that roused me.
I was a nominal Christian for a number of years; but, my

FAITH. 5 1

friends, I would rather die than go back to that kind of
life; having a name to live, and no power, no life, and
not able to say there is one who has been led to Christ
by my influence, to be a professed disciple of Jesus
Christ, and not be able to say there is one solitary soul
that has been led to Christ by my influence. How does
that professed Christian live on year after year, when he
has such a glorious privilege to work for Christ and win
souls for Him? And I believe to-day what we want is to
get the laity aroused. What we want is to get the pulpit
and the pew united, until Christianity becomes a living
power on the face of the earth. I do not fear your in-
fidelity. I do not fear your false isms cropping up on the
earth half so much as I do these cold formalisms coming
into the church of God. Let me tell you what awakened
me. I had a large Sunday-school in Chicago, and I was
satisfied with having large numbers interested. We were
sowing seed, and I said it was going to spring up some-
time, but I did not know when. There are a great many
people, who are all the time sowing seed. What would
you say of a farmer that was always sowing seed and
never harvested? You want to sow with one hand and
reap with the other, and if we look for an immediate
harvest we shall have it.

I was just in that condition. I was sowing, and sow-
ing. I had a hall over a meat market, and over in a
corner I had a class of wild, thoughtless, frivolous young
misses. I had more trouble with that class than with all
the other classes of the school; but I had, I thought,
the best teacher in the school in that class. He was
there every Sunday, and held their attention pretty well.
But one Sunday he was absent, and before I could get

52 MOODY S SERMONS.

around to his house to find out what was the matter, he
came down to my store. He was pale. He took a seat
upon a box, and he said, " I have been bleeding again at
my lungs, and have got to give up business. The doctor
tells me I can't live much longer, and I have closed up
my business, and I am going home to my mother, in the
east to die." Then he began to weep. " Well," I says
to him, "you are not afraid to die?" " No," he says;
"Mr. Moody, that does not trouble me, but my Sunday-
school class. I will meet them on the day of judgment;
not one of them is converted. If I had been faithful,
some of them might have been saved; but now I am
called away from them. I never shall meet them again
in this world. What will I say when I meet the judge?"
The poor man's heart was broken. I said, " Suppose
we go and see them." He said when he had strength he
did not go, and now he had lost his strength and could
not go. I said, " I will take you in a carriage." I took
that man out in a carriage; we went from house to house.
He was so weak he reeled on the sidewalk. When he
got in the house, he would say to Margaret, to Mary or
to Jane, calling them by their first name, " I have come
to talk to you about coming to Christ "; and then, would
plead with them as a dying man. When his strength
gave way I took him home, and the next day we started
out again, and at the end of ten days the last one was
converted. We had a meeting at his house, and it was
at that meeting that I caught a new inspiration. It was
at that meeting that God gave me to see the worth of a
soul. I do not know that I ever spent such a night
before that time. The whole class was gathered into the
fold. That teacher got down on his knees and prayed

FAITH. 53

that the Lord might give His angels charge over them.
When we got through, one of the young converts began
to pray, and another and another prayed for their teacher;
that they might be kept faithful, and that the Lord
might be with him in his sickness; and we bid him good-
by, after singing, ' '■ Blest be the tie that binds our hearts
in Christian love." It was a joyful meeting with all its
sadness. The next night he was to leave our city about
sundown. I went to the station to bid him good-by,
and, without speaking to anybody about it or expecting
it, I found at the depot before the train started the whole
class was there. Standing on the platform, the class
gathered around him. It was the most beautiful sight
ever I saw. They sang, ' ' We meet to part again, but
when we meet on Canaan's shore there will be no part-
ing." And as the train started, with his pale finger, he
pointed to heaven, until the wheels rolled him out of the
city; but, my friends, his influence lives in Chicago to-
day. Let us work and bring our children to Christ, and
our influence will be felt hundreds of years hence. What
we do for God is forever. It is eternal and everlasting.
So let us be up and about our Master's work. Let us
hunt up and bring some soul to Christ. Now, my friends,
do you believe that you can be instrumental, in God's
hands, in leading one soul to Christ during the next thirty
days? I do not believe there is a man or woman in this
house, but may be instrumental in leading some one soul
to Christ if he tries. Hear the voice of the Master to-
night, " Bring him unto Me."

REPENTANCE.

" Commandeth all men everywhere to repent." — Acts, xvii, 30.

You will find my text to-night in the seventeenth
chapter of Acts, a part of the thirtieth verse, "Com-
mandeth all men everywhere to repent." That must take
all in. It is another command. Then in the next verse
He tells us why, " Because He hath appointed a day in
the which He will judge the world in righteousness by
that man whom He hath ordained; whereof He hath
given assurance unto all men, in that He hath raised
him from the dead."

The day is appointed. We do not know anything
about the calendar of heaven. God has kept that appoint-
ment in His own mind. We do not know just the day,
but the day is appointed, the time is fixed, and God is
going to judge this world. So He sends out a proclama-
tion and commands all men now everywhere tG repent.
And if you do not want to be brought into judgment and
be judged, you had better repent; turn to God, and let
Jesus Christ be judged for you, and escape the judg-
ment. It is a great thing to get rid of the judgment.
"There is no condemnation to him that is in Christ
Jesus." That is, there is no judgment. Judgment is
already past to the believer — to the man that has repented
of his sins and confessed them, and turned away from

Jonah Calling Neneveh to Repentance. Jonah,

REPENTANCE. 57

them, and God has put them away. They never again
shall be mentioned. We read in Ezekiel that not one of
our sins has been mentioned; that they have been for-
given; therefore God calls upon all men everywhere now
— not some future time, but now, right here to-night — to
repent.

As we look at the beginning of the gospel of this dis-
pensation, you will find that John the Baptist, the fore-
runner of Christ, that his voice just rung through the
wilderness of Judea, and that he had but one text; you
might say his text was one word, " Repent, repent,
repent." That was his cry. He kept it up until he met
Christ at the Jordan, and then he changed the text, and
he had but one text after that, "Behold the Lamb of
God which taketh away the sin of the world."

He first called to repentance, but when Jesus Christ
commenced His ministry, he took up that wilderness cry
and echoed it again over the plains of Palestine —
'* Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." When
He sent out the twelve, He told them to go into every
town and make the proclamation that the kingdom
of God was coming nigh, and men must repent. If
they wanted to get in His kingdom, they must enter
through that door of repentance. When He sent out the
seventy, two by two, He gave them instructions that they
should just say, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is
at hand."

Then we find, after Christ had ascended again into
glory, Peter took up that cry on the day of Pentecost,
and as he preached through Jerusalem to sinners that
they must repent, the Holy Ghost came down and testi-
fied to what Peter was saying.

58 Moody's sermons.

Now, we find in this text Paul is here in Athens rais-
ing that wilderness cry again, and commands men now
and everywhere to repent. There is no such thing as a
man getting to heaven until he repents. You may preach
Christ and offer Christ, but man has got to turn away
from sin first, as we tried to show you last night. ' ' Let
the wicked forsake his way, the unrighteous man his
thoughts, and turn unto the Lord." Repentance is turn-
ing.

Before I commence to preach about repentance, 1
want to tell you what it is not. The fact is, I believe
this great truth, that has been talked so much in the
church that every school-boy ought to be acquainted with
it, is the very thing we are in darkness about.

It seems to me as if Satan has thrown dust in the eyes
of the people; that the god of this world has blinded'us
to- these things. I find a great many people have a false
idea of what repentance is.

Now, repentance is not fear. Mark that? I may stand
here to-night, and I may, perhaps, picture to you the
judgment, and I might alarm some people here, and you
may get scared, and it would look as if it was true work,
but it would pass away like a morning cloud. I might
hold a revolver to your head and say, " Repent, or I will
blow your brains out, " and you would say, * ' I will repent^
I will repent," but when the revolver was taken away you
would forget all about it. That is taking place all the
while. Some people think they have got to be wrought
up. Something has to be said to alarm them. You go
out to sea, or out here on Lake Erie, and let a storm
come up; fifteen minutes before the storm the sailors,
and perhaps the captain, are cursing and blaspheming.

REPENTANCE. 59

A storm comes up, and they go to praying. You would
think they were saints. The storm passes away, and
they are out of danger, and they are swearing again. That
is fear.. That is not repentance. It seemed as if the king
of Egypt was really coming to the Lord, to hear him
talk when he heard the thunderings and judgments of
God upon him. The king was alarmed. It looked as if
he was coming to the Lord, but he was only scared.
The moment those judgments were off, he forgot all
about it. That was not repentance at all. A man may
be scared and not repent. A man may be alarmed and
not repent. Many men, when death comes and takes a
look at them, begin to be alarmed. They get well and
forget all about it.

jlepentance |s_ njoi feeling Mark that! There are
hundreds and thousands of people in this city who just
have their arms folded, and they are waiting for some
queer kind of feeling. They think repentance is a certain
kind of feeling; that they have to feel very bad, very
sorrowful — got to weep a good deal, and then they will
be in a condition to come to God. Repentance is not
feeling. A man may feel very bad and not really repent.
I venture to say if you go down to Columbus to the state
penitentiary you cannot find a man in there that does not
feel sorry he got caught, awful sorry; shed a great many
tears in court on his trial. The trouble is they are sorry
they got caught. That is all. They feel very bad they
got caught. But there is no true repentance; no turning
to God. Feeling is not repentance. Last winter, I
preached seven months to the convicts in the Maryland
penitentiary. I found men just the same under lock and
key that they are out. There were a great many there

60 Moody's sermons.

in that prison who had passed through their trial, been
sentenced ten years or five years to the penitentiary, that
had no signs of repentance there at all. They were very
sorry they got caught. They would like to get out very
well, and perhaps they would do the same thing right
over when they got out. That is not repentance at all.

A man may be dishonest in some business transaction,
and bring ruin upon himself and his family; he may weep
bitter tears for weeks and for months, and yet not repent.
But he is very sorry he got caught. These defaulters are
all sorry they got caught. I do not know how many of
them truly repent. If they truly repent, God forgives
them whether man does or not. They may shed a great
many tears and not repent.

I tell you we have got to wake up to the fact that re-
pentance is not feeling. It is something higher, deeper,
broader than just mere sentiment or feeling. A man
may weep, and brush away the tears and forget all
about it.

And then repentance is not remorse. Judas had re-
morse. He did not repent towards God. He was filled
with remorse and despair, and went out and hung him-
self. That was not repentance. There is a difference
between remorse and repentance.

Then repentance is not penance. Some people think
they have got to put that in the place of repentance.
They think if they just do penance they are all right.
Suppose I go down to Lake Erie and stand all night up
to my neck in the water till daylight, is that repentance?
Will I be more acceptable to God to-morrow be-
cause I have been down there in the lake all night and
stood in the water up to my neck? That is not repentance.

REPENTANCE. 6l

Conviction is not repentance. A man may be con-
victed that he is wrong and not repent. I may remain
for years under conviction and not repent.

Repentance is not praying. A great many people
think they are going to settle this question by going off
to pray, and asking God to forgive them, and they go
right on living the same way they have been living.

Repentance is not forming a few good resolutions. It
is not resolving that we will be better and do better in
the future and just go right on.

Repentance is not breaking off from some sin. That
is not repentance. Suppose a vessel has sprung aleak.
There are three holes in it. You stop up two of them
and leave one of them open. Down goes the vessel.
That is enough to sink it. And so some men say, ' ' Well,
I will break off part of my sins." Suppose you are guilty
of a hundred and break off ninety-nine of them, and
leave one, and go on committing that one. That one is
enough, my friends.

If God drove Adam out of Eden on account of one sin,
do you think He will let you into the paradise above
with one sin upon you? If God would not let Adam stay
in Eden — that earthly paradise — with one sin upon him,
do you think He is going to allow sinners into that
heavenly paradise above with one sin upon them? So it
is not just breaking off part of our sins and leaving part
of them, but it is leaving the whole of them.

Perhaps you say, " Then what is repentance?" If it
is not fear, if it is not feeling, if it is not prayer, and if it
is not forming a few good resolutions and doing penance,
what is it?

Listen, my friends. Repentance is turning right about;

62 Moody's sermons.

in other words, as a soldier would call it, " Right about
face." As some one has said, man is born with his back
towards God. When he truly repents, he turns right
around and faces God. Repentance is a change of mind.
Repentance is an afterthought.

Now, I might feel sorry that I had done a thing, and
go right on and do it over again. You see, repentance is
deeper than feeling. It is action. It is turning right
about. And God commands all men everywhere to
turn.

Let me read to you here a verse or two from the twenty-
first chapter of the gospel according to Matthew, ' ' What
think ye?" These are the words of the Lord Jesus
Christ. ''What think ye?" A certain man had two
sons; and he said to them, "Go work in my vineyard."
One of them said, " I will not go." The other said, " I
will go sir," and he went not. But the man that said he
would not go repented and changed his mind — an after-
thought, you see — and turned and went and did it.
1 ' Now, " says Christ, ' ' which of the two sons did his
father's will?" "Well, the man that repented." And
Christ just held that right up to the people. That is
what the Lord wants, to have a man turn right about,
not try to justify himself in his sin, but acknowledge his
sin, confess his sin, and turn from it; and the moment a
man is willing to do that, that moment God is ready and
willing to receive him.

Now, I think, I can use an illustration that you can
get hold of. Suppose I want to go to Chicago to-night.
I go down to the depot. I do not know much about the
trains in this city. I see a man there whom I take to
be connected with the depot, and I ask him, "Is this

REPENTANCE. 63

train going right to Chicago?" "Yes, sir." I take
my bag and jump right aboard that train. I get com-
fortably seated, and my friend, Mr. Doan, comes down
and he says, ' ' Mr. Moody, where are you going? " And
I say, "Going to Chicago." "Well, you are on the
wrong train. That train is going off to New York." "I
think you are wrong, Mr. Doan; I just asked a man who
is a railroad man, and he told me this train was going to
Chicago." " Well, sir, I tell you you are wrong. That
train is not going to Chicago at all; it is going to take
you right in an opposite direction. That train is goiug
off to New York, and if you want to go to Chicago, you
must get out of that train and get aboard another." I
did not believe him at first. "Well," he says, "but I
have been here in this city for twenty-five years. I
know all about these trains. I go to Chicago and New
York a dozen times a year. I am constantly taking these
trains. I am having friends nearly every week that take
these trains, and I come down here, and I tell you that
I am right, and you are wrong, sir. You are on the
wrong train." At last Mr. Doan convinces me that I am
on the wrong train. That is conviction. But, if I do
not change trains, I will go to New York in spite of my
conviction. That is not repentance. I will tell you
what is repentance. Grabbing my bag and running
and getting on the other train. That is repentance.

Now, you are on the wrong train, my friends, and
what you want is to change trains to-night. You are on
the wrong side of this question. You are for the god
of this world, and the world claims your influence, God
commands all men now everywhere to repent. Change
trains! Make haste! There is no time for delay! It

64 Moody's sermons.

is a call that comes from the throne of God for every
man, woman, and child in this audience. Repent! If
you die without repentance, whose fault is it? God has
called you; God has commanded you, and if you will not
obey that command, if you will not repent, and you
die in your sins, no one is to blame but yourself. Mark
that! No one is to blame but yourself, for God has com-
manded you.

Now, the question is, what will you do with this com-
mand? Will you repent? Will you this very night, and
this very hour, change trains?

I will give you another illustration. There is going to
be an election in this state to-morrow. Suppose you be-
long to a party up till to-night, and you thought you
were right; but to-night you become convinced that the
party you are in is wrong. You become thoroughly con-
vinced that if the party succeeds, it is ruin to your state
government. You are a patriotic man, and you love the
government;

Now, some men say, " Can a man repent all at once?"
I say he can. A man may come in here to-night a
strong democrat, or he may come in here a strong re-
publican, and he may change inside of twenty-four hours.
You know that, don't you? If you belonged to a party, and
you were thoroughly convinced to-night that you were in
the wrong party, do you tell me you could not change to-
night and join the other party and go out to the polls
and go to work to-morrow and be on the other side of
the question? You can do it if you will.

Now, my friends, we will not bring up this question of
parties. I have nothing to do with that; I only use it as
an illustration. There is one thing I do know; you are

REPENTANCE. 65

on the wrong side of this question. If you are away
from God, and if you are righting against the God of
heaven, you had better change trains at once, hadn't
you? Do it to-night. Make up your mind to-night that
you will cast your lot with God's people; that you will
just change trains.

Look at that train the other night on the Michigan
Central road near Jackson. Do you tell me a man can-
not repent all at once? Do you tell me that the engi-
neer of that train could not have whistled down brakes
and turned that train back if he had three minutes?
He could if he had time. He didn't have enough
time. Look at that steamer on the ocean. It is bearing
down upon an iceberg. It is going at the rate of twelve
knots an hour in a fog; they cannot see a rod ahead. All
at once they reverse the steam. In a minute more they
would have gone on the iceberg, and all on that vessel
would have gone down. There was a minute when they
could have reversed the steam, and they just seized the
opportunity and saved all on board.

And so there is a moment, my friends, that you can
repent and turn to God, and there is such a thing as
being a minute too late. Look at that White Star line
steamer when five hundred were lost off the coast of
Newfoundland. There was a minute that they just
crossed the line, as it were. It was too late.

So you may neglect your soul's salvation, and you may
neglect to repent one day too long, and it will be too late.
God commands you to do it now. He says, ' ' Except a
man repent, he cannot see the kingdom of God." " Ex-
cept ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." "Except
ye repent." We have got to enter through the door of

66 Moody's sermons.

repentance into the kingdom of God. There is no other
way. The highest and the lowest, the richest and the
poorest, have all got to go in in the same way — on their
hands and knees.

I had a friend during the Chicago fire who got into one
of those lanes there, and he became so stifled with smoke
that he lay down to die. But as he lay on the ground he
got beneath the smoke and crawled out on his hands and
knees. And I tell you when a man gets on his knees and
says, " God be merciful to me a sinner," God will for-
give him and bless him. And so, if there is a person to-
night in this house that wants to be saved just now while
I am talking, say, " God helping me, this night I turn
my face toward heaven"; and if needs be God will send
legions of angels to help you fight your way up to heaven.

Some men say they are afraid they will not hold out.
But God says, " My grace is sufficient for thee." "As
thy faith, soshallthystrength.be." God is not a hard
master. "My yoke is easy, and my burden is light."
When men make deep and thorough work, and are will-
ing to forsake all sin and turn to God with all their
hearts, God helps them; then there is no trouble. God
is not a hard master.

Now, it is left for you, as I said last night. You can
turn if you will. The will comes in again. I read some
time ago an account of a wealthy man who had an
only son, who was a wild, reckless boy; but, although he
was a wild, reckless boy, his father loved him. When
the father was dying, he had his will made out, and he
willed that boy all his property on one condition, and that
was that the boy should repent of his sins. If the boy
turned away from his evil associates and his past life, and

REPENTANCE. 6/

became a sober and an upright man, he should have all
his estate. All he had got to do was to enter into it.
The father put it in the hands of trustees on these con-
ditions, and all that boy had to do was to turn from his
past life, and his evil associates, and enter into it. He
loved his sins so he would not do it, and he died in his
sins. I do not know as I could have a better illustration
than that. We have got an inheritance, incorruptible,
kept in reserve for us, and the moment a man is willing
to turn from his sins he can enter into that inheritance.
God keeps it in store for all that want it. But do not
think for a moment that you are going to enter into that
inheritance, into those mansions Christ has gone to pre-
pare, with sin upon you. It is utterly out of the question.
In your sins it is impossible for you to enter into that in-
heritance. ''Except ye repent ye shall all likewise
perish." We cannot get into the kingdom of God with-
out repentance, without turning from sin, without laying
hold of His righteousness and giving up our own.

So the question comes for us to settle, and it is a ques-
tion we can settle if we will. We need not wait for this
kind of feeling or that kind. It is to obey. Do you
think God would command us to do something we could
not do, and then punish us eternally for not doing it?
Do you think God would command all men now every-
where to repent, and not give them power to do it? Do
you believe it? Away with such a doctrine as that! He
would be an unjust God if He commanded me to do
something I could not do, and then punished me for not
doing it.

Suppose I should command my boy to leap a mile at
one leap, and if he did not do it that I would flog him,

68 Moody's sermons.

and then because he didn't do it I flogged him, what
would you people in this city say? You would not allow
me to preach. You would say I was an unjust man.
There is one thing we must do as we preach about the
love of God and mercy of God; we have also to stand up
for His justice. He is a God of justice. God is not an
unjust God. He does not command us to do anything
we cannot do, and then punish us for not doing it. With
the command comes the power to obey. He said to the
man with the withered hand, " Stretch out thine hand.''
The man might have said, "Well, Lord, I have been
trying to stretch out that hand for thirty years, but I
could not do it." But with the command came the
power. He said, "Stretch out thine hand," and out
came the old withered arm, and was made whole before
it got out straight from his body; and so men are blessed
in the very act of obedience. Not for just feeling or
sentiment. What God wants is to have us obey. What
is it to obey? It is to repent and bring forth fruit meet
for repentance. What does that mean? If you cheat a
man out of five dollars, don't keep that five dollars.
Give it back. If you are going to repent and turn to
God, out with it! It don't belong to you. If some
young man cheats his washerwoman by not paying his
wash-bill, or goes off without paying his boarding mis-
tress, don't think you can repent and turn to God with-
out paying up every dollar, and bringing forth fruit meet
for repentance.

In John Wesley's day, there was a hard case that came
in among the Wesleys. He was one of the wildest men
in Wales. He had been a drinking man for years. He
used to take great pleasure in defrauding men. He

REPENTANCE. 69

would drink and not pay for his drinks. He would gam-
ble, and not pay what he had lost. He owed debts to
nearly everybody. But he was converted, and soon after
he was converted he had a little legacy left him; and he
bought a horse and saddle, and he started, and went from
town to town and hunted up his old creditors and paid
them dollar for dollar. Then he would preach in those
towns, and tell them what great things God had done
for him. But he hadn't enough money to go around, and
he sold the horse and saddle, and he paid up the very
last dime. It is to pay the last dime — that is repentance.
We want a revival of righteousness here in the west.
If we want anything we want right living. We want a
revival of honesty. When the Bible says, " Bring forth
fruit meet for repentance," it means to make restitution.
If you ruin a man, do what you can to help that poor
fellow. If you have helped to pull any down, do all you
can to help him up. If it takes the last dollar you have
got, you must pay it, where you have taken from men
dishonestly.

When Mr. Sankey and I were in a town or city some
time ago a man came to the inquiry-room, and great
drops of perspiration stood upon his brow. He was
greatly excited and says, "Sir, I don't want to talk with
you before these people. Can't we get off alone?" I
took him off alone, and he says, " The trouble with me
is I am a defaulter." " Well," I said, "can you make
restitution?" "No, sir; not for the whole amount."
" How much is it? " " Fifteen hundred dollars." " How
much can you pay back?" " About nine hundred dol-
lars. But," says he, "if I pay that back, I will not have
anything to support my wife and children." I says,

JO MOODY S SERMONS.

"Well, it don't belong to you, anyhow. You don't
want it. No man can prosper with stolen money."
Says he, "I want your advice; I have a chance to go
into business, and if I do not give back that money and
go into business I think I can soon make up the $1,500
and pay it back." I said, " No, that is the devil's work.
Don't take that stolen money and go into business. You
will not prosper. God will turn your way upside down.
He will hedge it up. ' He will turn the way of the
wicked upside down.' What you want is to go to the
root of the matter. Do right, and God will bless you;
but you can't ask God's blessing with stolen money." I
believe that is the reason so many do not flourish; they
can't ask God's blessing upon their business on account
of some dishonest act; they have lied in selling goods or
something else. Says he, "I will disgrace my wife and
children if I come out and confess." I said, " Not nec-
essarily. You can do it through a third party. Not
only that, but I think those men you defrauded would
forgive you if they saw true signs of repentance." He
said the terms were too hard. I said when he went off,
" The spirit of God has hold of you. You will not sleep
any. You will not have rest until you pay back that
money. It will not only burn in your pocket, but burn
in your soul." He went off, and the next day he came
back again, and he says, "Is there no other way? " Says
I, " There is no other way. You don't want any other
way. The right way is always the best way. " Still he
wanted to take some other way. Says I, " Do right,
and let the consequences be what they will." He says,
'• I am afraid if I go back to those men they will just put
me in prison." I says, " You had better go into prison

REPENTANCE. J\

with a clear conscience than be out with a guilty con-
science. You won't have any peace with a guilty con-
science. I have never heard of a man being put in
prison that wanted to do right. Now, let me get those
two men together and talk with them — see how they
feel." He slunk from that; he said he could not do it.
I said, "You can if you will." Finally he consented,
and we sent for the two men and got them in a room
alone. He brought to me a great, long envelope, with
$980.40, took the last penny out of his wife's pocket-
book. " It is all there, is it?" says I. "Every cent; it
is all there." Those two men were sitting there in the
room, and I took out the money and laid it down and
told them the story, and great tears trickled down their
cheeks. They said they would like to forgive him, and I
went down and brought him up. It was one of the
sweetest sights of my life. Those two men got down
and prayed with that man. The question was settled.
Then friends gathered around him and helped him. He
is now a successful business man. God forgave him, and
his employers forgave him. He brought forth fruit meet
for repentance.

I believe the reason we do not have better work in this
country is because there is so much sham. We do not
go down to the bottom of things. O, may God give us a
revival of honesty, downright, upright honesty! That is
what we want — right living! If it costs the right eye,
out with it! That is what repentance means. It is not
just mere sentiment, going to meeting and singing and
praying and having a good time, not squaring our life
according to Scripture. God is going to draw the plum-
met line by-and-by, and He will have it right. We may
deceive our friends and deceive one another, but let us

72 Moody's sermons.

keep in mind we cannot deceive God. If we attempt to
cover up some sin, some dishonest act, and come to God
with our prayers, He will not accept them. They will
not go higher than our heads.

Some people say they cannot get an answer to their
prayers. If they would get down to the bottom of things,
they would find out the reason. They would find that
there was something not correct in their lives.

They have not made the work deep and thorough. Let
us pray for one thing in this city; let me ask the Christ-
ians in this house to-night to pray for one thing, and
s^that is that the Holy Ghost may convict us all of sin.
Let it begin in the pulpit. If there is any one thing that
I want more than anything else it is that God may show
me everything in my life that is contrary to His will, and
that He will give me grace enough to turn from it. I
would rather do it; I would rather live so that God should
be pleased, with me than to have the applause of the
world. I would rather live so that God could say,
"Well done, good and faithful servant," than just to
accumulate a little wealth down here and have the
applause of men for a few short years, and then know
that I had not pleased Him. When will we wake up to
the fact that it is more important to live to please God
than man?

And then how sweet our life will be, how pure our
conscience will be, if God has forgiven everything, if we
have brought everything to light, and turned from our
sins, and the work has been deep and thorough!

But one thought more, before I close, and that is, what
produces repentance. Paul says in the second chapter
of Romans, and the fourth verse, * ' Or despisest thou the

REPENTANCE. 73

riches of His goodness and forbearance and long suffer-
ing; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee
to repentance? "

O, that the Lord may open our eyes to-night and show
us how good He has been to us all these years!

Now, the world has a false idea of God. I will ven-
ture to say there is not an unsaved man or woman in
this audience to-night, but has a false idea of God, and
the reason you cannot repent is because you do not turn
from that false idea. You have got an idea that God
hates you — is an enemy. That is as false as any lie
that ever came out of the pit of hell. There is not any
truth in it. God loves the sinner. He so loved the
world, He gave His only begotten Son to save sinners.
Christ died for the ungodly, not the godly; for the sinner,
not for the righteous. I want to say to every poor, lost
soul in this audience to-night, God loves you with an
everlasting love although you may have hated Him, and
trampled his laws under your feet. He loves you still.
May the love of God to-night lead you to repentance!

There is a story in English history of King Henry and
his rebellious son, who rose up in arms against his father.
The king was at last obliged to take his army and pur-
sue that rebellious son. He drove him into a walled city
in France, and while the poor fellow was in that city the
father was besieging it for weeks and months. But the
son fell sick, and while he was sick he began to think of
the goodness and kindness of that father. At last it
broke his heart, and he sent a messenger to his father to
tell him that he repented of his past life in rebellion, and
asked his father to forgive him. But the old sire re-
fused. He did not believe he was sincere. When the

74 MOODY S SERMONS.

messenger brought back that message that his father
would not forgive him, he requested them to take him
out of his bed and lay him in sack-cloth and ashes, and
in that condition he would die. When they told his
father of it, and he went to look at that boy and saw
him in sack-cloth and ashes, he fell on his face and cried
as David did, "O my son, would to God I had died for
thee!'

That father made a mistake. He did not know that
boy's heart. But God never makes any mistake. O
sinner, if you ask him to-night for pardon He will pardon
you. If you want the love of God shed abroad in your
heart, turn away from sin and see how quick He will
receive you and how quick He will bless you.

The Expulsion from the Garden. Genesis, iii, 24.

EXCUSED.

"I pray thee have me excused." — Luke, xiv, 19.

These three men that we read about to-night were not
invited to hear some dry, stupid sermon or lecture, but
they were invited to a feast. The gospel in this parable
is represented as a feast, and there was an invitation ex-
tended to these three men to come to the feast. " And
they all with one consent began to make excuse." It
does not say that they had an excuse, but they made ex-
cuse, manufactured one for the occasion.

Now, excuses are as old as man. The first excuse that
we hear of was in Eden. The first thing we hear, after
the fall of man, was man making excuse. Instead of
Adam confessing his guilt like a man, he began to ex-
cuse himself — justify himself. That is what every man
is trying to do, justify himself in his sins. Adam said,
" It is this woman that thou gavest me." He hid behind
her — mean, cowardly act. And it really was charging it
back on God. " It is the woman that Thou gavest me.''
Blaming God for his sin. From the time that Adam fell
from the summit of Eden to the present time, man has
been guilty of that sin, charging it back on God, as if
God was responsible for his sin, and God was guilty.

Now, I venture to say that if I should go down among
the congregation here to-night, every man that has not
accepted this invitation would be ready with an excuse.

78 Moody's sermons.

You have all got excuses. You would have one right on
the end of your tongue. You would be ready to meet
me the moment I got to you. If I met that excuse, then
you would get another, and you would hide behind that.
Then, if I drove you out from behind that, you would
get another. And so you would go on, hiding behind
some excuse, making some excuse; and if you should get
cornered up and could not think of one, Satan would be
there to help you make one. That has been his busi-
ness for the past six thousand years. He is very good to
help men make excuses, and undoubtedly he helped these
three men we read of here to-night. No sooner do we
begin to preach the gospel of the Son of God than men
begin to manufacture excuses. They begin to hunt
around to see if they cannot find some reason to give for
not accepting the invitation. Excuses are the cradle, in
other words, that Satan rocks men off to sleep in. He
gets them into that cradle of excuses that they may ease
their conscience.

But let me say to you, my friends, there is no man or
woman in this assembly to-night that can give an ex-
cuse that will stand the light of eternity. All these ex-
cuses that men are making are nothing but refuges of
lies after all. We read in the prophecy of Isaiah that
God shall sweep away these refuges of lies. When a man
stands before God he will not be making excuses. His
excuses will all be gone then, and he will be speechless.

WTe read of that man that got into the feast without a
wedding garment, and when the lord of the feast came
in he saw the man there. That man, perhaps, thought
he could get in with the crowd. Some people say, '* O,
I will go with the crowd." He thought he could get in

EXCUSED. 79

with the crowd, and he would not be noticed. But that
eye was keen to detect one that had not on the wedding
garment. Do not think for a moment that God's eye is
not upon you? He knows how all these excuses are
made. You cannot hide anything from Him. You may
make excuses and put on a sort of garment, and then you
are justifying yourself in living away from God and not
accepting this invitation; but really it is nothing that will
stand the light of eternity. Things look altogether dif-
ferent when you stand before Him.

Did you ever stop to think what would take place in
a city like this city, if God should take every man and
woman that wants to be excused at their word, and
should say, " I will excuse you"? God took these three
men that we read of at their word. He said, " Not one
of them that were bidden shall taste of my supper." They
spurned the invitation; they turned their backs upon it;
and then God withdrew the invitation. " Not one of
them that were bidden shall taste of my supper." Sup-
pose that that should take place in this city, and then by
a stroke of providence He should sweep every man and
woman in this city that wants to be excused from this
feast into eternity. Suppose every man and woman that
wanted to be excused from this feast should die inside of
twenty-four hours. I think there would be plenty of
room in this tabernacle to-morrow night for all that want
to come. There would be a good many of your stores
closed to-morrow. There would be no one to open them.
Merchants, employees, clerks would all be gone. Every
saloon in this city would be closed up. Every rumseller
wants to be excused from this feast. He can't get into
the kingdom of God with a rum-bottle in his hand.

80 Moody's sermons.

"Woe be to the man that putteth the bottle to his
neighbor's lips." He knows very well that if he accepts
this invitation he has got to give up his hellish traffic.
Every blasphemer in this city wants, to be excused from
this feast, because if he accepts this invitation he has
got to give up his blasphemy. Every drunkard in this
city, every harlot, every thief, every dishonest man,
every dishonest merchant would be gone. They want to
be excused from this feast. Why? Because they have
got to turn away from their sins if they accept of this
invitation. The longer I live, the more I am convinced,
that the reason men do not come to Christ is because
they do not want to give up sin. That is the trouble. It
is not their intellectual difficulties. It is quite popular
for people to say that they have got intellectual diffi-
culties; but if they would tell the honest truth, it is some
darling sin that they are holding on to. They are not
willing to give up the harlot; they are not willing to
give up gambling; they are not willing to give
up drinking; the lust of the flesh; the lust of the eye,
and the pride of life. That is the trouble. It is not their
intellectual difficulties so much as it is their darling sin.
The grass would soon be growing in your streets in this
city if God should take every man at his word, and
excuse him from this feast and take him away. Things
would look altogether different in your city inside of a
week if God should excuse you that want to be excused.
And yet, the moment that God sends out His invitation,
excuses just run right in. " I pray thee, have me ex-
cused." That is the cry to-day. Man prepares his feast,
and there is a great rush to get the best seats. God pre-
pares His feast, and what a feast it is! Think of it! It
is not often that common people like you and me get an

EXCUSED. 8 1

invitation to a royal feast. There is many a man that
has lived in Windsor castle for fifty years, and has never
got sight of Queen Victoria. There are men in London
that stand high, men of wealth, men of position, who
never were invited into her palace. Men think it is a
great honor to be invited into a king's palace or the
palace of a queen. But here we are invited to the mar-
riage of the Lamb. We are invited by the Lord of glory
to come to the marriage of His only begotten Son, and
men begin to make excuses. "I pray thee, have me
excused."

Now, let us look for a moment at the excuses that these
three men gave. The first man might have been very
polite. Some men are very polite. Some are very gruff,
and treat you with a great deal of scorn and contempt.
The moment you begin to talk to them they say, " You
attend to your business, and I will attend to mine." But
I can imagine this man was a very polite man. and he
said, " I wish you would take back this message to your
lord, that I would like to be at that feast. Tell him
there is not a man in the kingdom that would rather be
there than myself, but I am so situated that I can't come.
Just tell him I have bought me a piece of ground, and
that I must needs go and see it." Queer time to go and
see to land, wasn't it? Just at that supper time. They
were invited to supper, you see. But he must needs go
and see it. He had not made a partial bargain and
wanted to go and close the bargain. He did not have
that good excuse. He had bought the land, and he must
needs go and see it. Could he not go and see this land
the next morning? Could he not have accepted this in-
vitation and then gone and seen his land? If he had

82 Moody's sermons.

been a good business man, some one has said, he would
have gone and looked at the land before he bought it.
But the land was already bought, and the trade made.
He did not say, "I want to get the deed on record,
because I am afraid some one else will get a deed of it,
and get it on record first, and I will lose it." He had not
got that good an excuse. The only excuse he had was,
" I have bought me a piece of ground, and I must needs
go and see it." You will see it was a lie right on the
face of it. It was just manufactured to ease that man's
conscience. He did not want to go to the feast, and he
had not the common honesty to come out with it, and
say, " I don't want to go to the feast, but just take back
word that I have bought me a piece of ground, and I
must needs go and see it," and away he went. How
many men are giving their business as an excuse for not
accepting this invitation! You talk to them about things
pertaining to the kingdom of God, and they tell you
they have got to attend to business; that business is very
pressing. It does not say that this was a bad man. He
might have been as moral as any man in this city. He
might have held as high a position as any man in this
city. He might have ridden in his chariot. He might
have been a very liberal man to the poor. He might
have been a very benevolent man. He might have given
his substance, but he neglected to accept this invitation,
and Christ teaches us plainly that if we neglect this sal-
vation, how shall we escape the damnation of hell?

People say, "What have I done? I have not got
drunk; I have not murdered; I have not lied; I have not
stolen. What have I done?" I will take you on the
ground that you have not done anything; I will not admit

EXCUSED. 83

that for a moment, but suppose I take you on that
ground. If a man neglects salvation, he will be lost.
You see a man in yonder river, his oars lying in the bot-
tom of his boat, and he is out there in the current; his
arms are folded, and the current is quietly drawing him
toward the rapids. Some one warns him. " Say, friend,
you are hastening toward the rapids." " No, I am doing
nothing, sir. My arms are folded. What have I done? "
11 But you are drawing toward the rapids." " I tell you
sir, I am not; I am doing nothing." You may try to
convince him, but he will be blind. So indeed he is not
doing anything, but that current is quietly drawing him
toward the cataract, and in a few moments he will go
over. Many a man is flattering himself that he is not
doing anything, but let him neglect salvation, and he is
lost.

The next man's excuse was one manufactured for the
occasion. It was not one whit better than the excuse of
the first man, " Take back word to thy lord that I can-
not come. I have got pressing business. I have bought
five yoke of oxen, and I must needs go to prove them."
As if he had to prove his oxen that night at supper time!
He had plenty of time to prove his oxen. He had
bought them. They were in his stall. But the fact was,
he was like the first man; he did not want to go and
had not the common honesty to say so, and so he says,
"I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I must needs go
and prove them." He must go right off that night to
prove them. That is his excuse. There is not a child
five years old that cannot see that excuse is just man-
ufactured.

These men began to make excuses. They did not

84 Moody's sermons.

have one; they manufactured excuses to ease their con-
sciences. It was nothing but a downright lie; that is
what it was. Let us call things by their right names.
People think if they can make a sort of plausible excuse
they are justified. But these excuses are nothing but
refuges of lies.

The third man's excuse is more absurd than the others;
' ' I have married me a wife, and therefore I cannot come."
Who likes to go to a feast better than a young bride?
He might have taken his wife with him. He had no ex-
cuse. That was the excuse he was hiding behind. " I
have married me a wife, and therefore I cannot come."
If his wife would not go with him, he could let her stay
at home, and he could go. This has got to be a per-
sonal matter. We are not going to heaven in families,
as I said last night. It is a thing between you and your
God. The invitation was extended to that man as the
head of his own house. He was priest over his own
household, and he had no excuse; but he just made up
that excuse.

Now, there is nothing on record, you might say, against
those three men. You might say there were a good
many things noble about those men. It does not say
that they were licentious; it does not say that they were
drunkards; it does not say that they were dishonest; it
does not say that they were thieves, but they only made
excuses so as not to be at that feast. They did not want
to accept of the feast.

I notice some of you smile as I take up those three ex-
cuses; but I would like to ask this congregation this
question: Have you a better one? Come! I see a
young man laughing down there. Have you a better

EXCUSED. 85

excuse yourself? Come! Eighteen hundred years have
rolled away, -and they tell us we are living in a very wise
age, that we are living in a very intellectual age, that
men are growing much wiser, and that we know a good
deal more than our fathers did; but with all men's boasted
knowledge, can you find a man to-day who has a bet-
ter excuse than those three men had? During the last
three years I have spent most of my time talking to peo-
ple about their salvation; their individual difficulties, and
I have yet to find the first man or the first woman that
can give me a better excuse than those three men had.
I tell you, that man or that woman cannot be found to-
day. I will defy any man to come forward to-night and
give me a better excuse than those three men had. The
excuses men are hiding behind to-day are fearful. There
is not an excuse that you would dare to give to God.
Things look altogether different when you come to stand
before Him.

Take a piece of paper, if you have it in your pocket,
and a pencil and write down, ' * Why should I serve the
god of this world?" Second, " Why should I serve the
God of the Bible? " Then put down your reasons why
you should serve the god of this world, and your reasons
why you should serve the God of the Bible, and see how
it looks; because it is clearly taught that we either serve
the god of this world or the God of heaven. We can-
not be neutral. There is no neutrality about this mat-
ter. We are either for God or against Him. We can-
not serve God and mammon. We are either serving the
god of this world — that is, Satan — or we are serving the
God of heaven. The line is drawn. You may not be
able to see it, but God sees it. God knows the heart of

86 Moody's sermons.

every man and woman in this assembly. He knows all
about us, and He sees right through the excuses we make.
He looks at the heart. He does not look at the excuses
you make. Those are only from the tongue. They are
only manufactured in the head. He knows that the dif-
ficulty lies down in the heart It is because you will not
come unto Him. It is not because men cannot come; it
is because men set their wills up against God's will, and
are not willing to yield.

One of the popular excuses of the present day is this
good old book, the Bible. It is amazing to hear some
men talk. I have touched upon this a number of times
since I have come to this city, but I find as I come out
west a good deal of infidelity; men profess to be infidels.
It is astonishing to hear them talk about the Bible, some-
thing they do not know anything about. I can find
scarcely one of them that has ever looked into it and
read it, and who knows anything about it. They have
heard some infidel lecture, some scoffing, sneering man
come along caviling at the Bible, and they have heard
some few things that man has said, and they bring them
out on all occasions. They will not look into that book
and ask God to help them to understand it. If a man
will be honest with God, God will be honest with him.
There is no trouble about this book; the trouble is with
the life.

Wilmot, the great infidel, as he lay dying, putting his
hand upon that book, said, ''The only thing against
that book is a bad life." When a man has got a bad
record against him, he wants to get that book out of the
way, because it condemns him; that is the trouble. The
trouble is not with the book; it is with your record and

EXCUSED. 87

mine. Because that book condemns sin, we want to get
it out of the way. Men do not like to be condemned;
that is the trouble.

Then men say they cannot understand it. Well, you
and the Bible agree exactly. A man was telling me
some time ago that he could not understand the Bible. I
said, " You and the Bible agree exactly." He said, " I
don't agree with the Bible at all." " Well," I said, "you
agree exactly," and I referred him to a passage in the
prophecy of Daniel, " Many shall be purified and made
white and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly, and
none of the wicked shall understand. " That is what
Scripture says. If a man is living in sin, God is not
going to reveal to that man his secrets.

I would like to ask those men who are giving this
Bible as an excuse for not becoming Christians, who
wrote that book? Did bad men write it? It is a very
singular thing that they should write their own condemna-
tion, isn't it? How that book condemns bad men! Bad
men would not write their own condemnation, would
they? They do not do it now-a-days, do they? They
are the last ones to write their own condemnation. Well,
if a good man wrote a bad book, they could not be good,
could they?

Now, it seems to me, that if a man will stop to think
a moment, he will see that the trouble is not with the
book. The trouble is with himself. And when a man
bows to the will of God, that book becomes food to his
soul. He can feed on it then; there is something to feed
on. He gets life from it; he gets power, and he gets
something that tells him how he can get victory over
himself. I consider that the greatest triumph a man can

SB Moody's sermons.

have in this world. A man that knows how to rule him
self is greater than he that taketh a city. Look at the
misery and woe that has come into the world through
that one door, men and women that cannot control them-
selves, that cannot control their tempers, their lusts,
their passions, and their appetites. That book tells me
how I can get victory over myself; and it is the only book
in the wide world that can tell a man how to get victory
over himself. I haven't time to dwell upon that excuse
any longer.

There is another very common excuse, and I have
heard it in this city as much as any. " Why," they say,
" Mr. Moody, you know it is a very hard thing to be a
Christian — a very hard thing." When they tell me that
I like to ask them, "Which is the hardest master, the
devil" — for we will call him by his right name, because
every man that serves not the Lord Jesus Christ, and will
have nothing to do with the God of the Bible, is serving
the god of this world. — " now, which is the easiest
master? "

Christ says that His }oke is easy, and His burden is
light. Now, you go right along and say, "That is a lie."
You don't say it right out in plain English, but we may
as well talk plainly to-night. When you say it is hard
to be a Christian, you say that God is a liar; that it is an
easier thing to serve the god of this world than it is the
God of the Bible. Now, I want to say that I consider
that one of the greatest lies that ever came out of the pit
of hell; and how Satan can stand up in this nineteenth
century and make men believe he is an easier master
than the God of heaven is one of the greatest mysteries
of the present day.

EXCUSED. 89

" The way of the transgressor is hard." Blot it out if
you can. Close up that book, and you will see the evi-
dence of that fact all around you. There is not a day
passes but you can read upon the pages of the daily
papers, "The way of the transgressor is hard." I wish
I could drive that lie back into hell where it came from.

You go over to the Tombs in New York city, and you
will find a little iron bridge running from the police court
where the men are tried right into the cell. I think the
New York officials have not been noted for their piety
in your time and mine; but they had put up there in
iron letters on that bridge, ' ' The way of the transgressor
is hard." They know that is true. Blot it out if you can.
God Almighty said it. It is true. "The way of the
transgressor is hard." On the other side of that bridge
they put these words, " A bridge of sighs." I said to one
of the officers, " What did you put that up there for?"
He said that most of the young men — for most of the
criminals are young men; "The wicked don't live out
their days," put that in with it — he said most of the
young men, as they passed over that iron bridge went
over it weeping. So they called it the bridge of sighs.
" What made you put that other there, 'The way of the
transgressor is hard'"? " Well," he said, "it is hard. I
think if you had anything to do with this prison you
would believe that text, ' The way of the transgressor is
hard.'"

If a man will just look around him and keep in mind
this one truth, "The way of the transgressor is hard,"
he will be thoroughly convinced inside of twenty-four
hours that that passage of Scripture is true. It is not that
God's service is hard. The trouble with men is, they are

90 Moody's sermons.

trying to serve God with the old Adam nature. They
are trying to serve God before they are born of God.
Now, to tell a man in the flesh to serve God in the spirit,
who is a spirit, I would just as soon tell a man to try to
jump over the moon and expect him to do it. He can-
not do it. The natural man is not subject to the law of
God, and neither indeed can he be. You are not to try to
serve God until you are born of God, until you are born
again, born from above, until you are born of the spirit;
and when a man is born of the spirit, the yoke is easy, and
the burden is light. I have been in the service upwards
of twenty years, and I want to testify to-night that my
master is not a hard master. What say you, ministers
here to-night, do you find Him a hard master? Speak
out. I thought you would say so.

Ah, my friends, He is not a hard master. I want to
have you remember that. No, He is not a hard master.
That is one of the lies coming from the pit. "My yoke
is easy, and my burden is light." When a man submits
his heart and will to God, takes Christ into his heart and
lives a life of faith, it is delightful.

Now, I will tell you a good way to get at this. Put
you people into a jury-box. Just imagine you are on a
jury to-night. I will take the most faithful follower the
Lord Jesus has got in this city. I don't know who the
person is; it may be a man or woman that the papers,
perhaps, have no record of. God knows where His loved
ones are. It may be some poor person off in some dark
street, but it is one who has great faith and walks with
God, whose life is as pure and spotless and blameless as
any person's that you can find; one that has been living
with Jesus Christ, say, fifty years. Let that person, come

EXCUSED. 91

up on this platform to-night, and speak out and testify.
You will see in his face that he has not had a hard mas-
ter. There will be no wrinkles in that brow. There
will be light in the eye, there will be peace stamped upon
that brow, joy beaming from that countenance. He
need not speak; let that person stand here, and by his
face he will show he has a good master and an easy
master.

Now, find the most faithful follower that the devil has
got in this city. Let him or her come up here. Ah,
you need not speak. I think you would say, "That is
enough." You can tell by the looks, for the devil puts
his mark upon his own. He stamps the mark deep. Men
may try to get rid of it, but they carry the mark. And
the Lord Jesus puts his stamp upon his own. You take
the two and draw the contrast and see if that lie that has
come from Satan is not as great a lie as ever was told,
that our Lord is a hard master. When people say they
would like to become a Christian, but it is a hard thing
to be a Christian, they virtually say God is a hard mas-
ter, and Satan is an easy one.

Now, do you think it easy to go against your own con-
victions? Because that is what men do. They have to
stifle conscience to serve the god of this world and turn
their back on the God of the Bible. Do you think it is an
easy thing to go against your own judgment? For if a
man will just stop and consult his judgment, his judg-
ment will tell him that the safest, and wisest, and best
thing he can do is to believe on the God of the Bible. Is
it an easy thing to go against the advice and wishes of
the best friends you have got? There is not a person in
this congregation to-night that has got a true friend that

92 Moody's sermons.

would not advise him to serve the God of heaven. A
man or woman that would advise you to serve the god of
this world would be the worst enemy you could have.
They would make the world dark and bitter. Is it an
easy thing to trample a mother/s prayers under your feet,
to break a mother's heart and send her down to an un-
timely grave? That is easy, is it? Ah, many a man has
done it. You call that easy. Is it easy to go against
the very best counsel and advice you have from the best
and most loved friends you have got? Hear what the
master said to Saul, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou
me? It is hard for thee." He did not talk about its being
hard for the disciples that Saul was going to put in prison,
and, perhaps, have them stoned to death like Stephen.
It was not as hard for Stephen to be stoned to death as
it was for Saul to persecute him. "Saul, Saul, why
persecutest thou me? It is hard for thee to kick against
the pricks." It is hard for a man to contend with his
Maker. It is hard for a man to fight against the God of
the Bible. It is an unequal controversy. It is an un-
equal battle, and God is going to have the victory. It is
folly for a man to attempt to fight against the God of
that Bible.

Mr. Spurgeon uses this parable of a tyrant ordering a
subject into his presence and saying to him, " What is
your occupation?" "I am a blacksmith." "Well,"
says he, "I want you to go and make a chain a certain
length," and he gave him nothing to make it with, " and
on a certain day I want you to bring it into my presence."
That day came. The blacksmith appeared with his
chain. The tyrant says, "Take that chain and make it
twice that length . " He took it, worked a long time and

EXCUSED. 93

made it twice the length, and brought it back. The ty-
rant says, "Take that chain and make it twice the
length." He made it twice the length, and he had to get
friends to help him get it in the presence of the tyrant;
and when he brought it back, the tyrant says to his men
standing around, " Take that man and bind him hand
and foot, and cast him into a dungeon;" and, says Mr.
Spurgeon, ' ' that is what every man that is serving the
god of this world is doing, forging the chain that is going
to bind him." A man goes into a saloon and takes a so-
cial glass. You step up and tell that man of his danger;
that he is binding himself, and that by and by he will be
bound hand and foot, and he will laugh you to scorn and
mock you, but he goes on adding link after link to that
chain. By-and-by the tyrant has got him bound, and he
says, " Now, let us see you assert your freedom." Men
say they don't want to give up their freedom. There is
no freedom until a man knows the Lord Jesus Christ.
A man is a slave to sin, to his passions and lusts, until
Christ snaps the fetters and sets him free.

There was a man I used to know in Chicago that I
talked to a great many times about drinking. He was a
business man. He used to say, "I can stop when I
please. " One night I went out, and my family heard a
strange noise. We lived on the corner. They heard
him coming down the side street, and he made an un-
earthly noise; and my wife said to the servants, "Are
the doors locked? " He came around to the front door
and tried to burst the door open. My wife says, "What
•do you want?" " O," he says, "I want to see your
husband." " Well, he has gone down to the meeting.'
Away he started. I was walking down to the church,

94 MOODY S SERMONS.

and he went by me . He was running so fast he could
not stop . He went on a rod or two and came back.
The poor fellow was nearly frightened out of his life.
He says, "I have got to die to-night." " O, no, you
are not going to die." "I have got to die to-night."
«« Why," says I, " what is the trouble? " And I found the
man had drank so much that he was under the power of
the enemy. I saw what his trouble was. ''Why," he
says, ' ' Satan is coming to my house to-night to take me
to hell, and," says he, "I have got to go. I begged of
him to let me stay till one o'clock . He told me at one
o'clock he will be back after me." I said, " He will not
come after you." " He will; there is no chance of my
getting away from him. He is coming!" Well, I
couldn't convince that man. Poor man! He had been
serving the god of this world, and now he was reaping
what he had been sowing. On that night I had six men
come to that man's house, and at one o'clock those six
men could not hold him. " Look there! see him! There
they are! They are after me! He is taking me! He is
going to take me to hell! He is after me! " I thought
that man would really die. Poor man! He is one of
those men that thought God a hard master, and the devil
was one that was easy . That is the way the devil serves
his subjects. Reaping time is coming. Poor man!
He suffered untold agonies that night . Yet men, with
all these witnesses around them, will go on drinking. A
young man will go from this tabernacle to-night, and
go down to a saloon and order a glass and drink, and go
on drinking, until by-and-by delirium seizes him, and the
snakes crawl around his body, and would seem as if
death would lay right hold of him , I can't describe it .

EXCUSED. 95

It would take some of these men that have been there
to tell you about it. O, tell me that the devil is an easy
master and that God is a hard one! Away with that lie;
away with that excuse. My friends, never give it as long
as you live. It is false.

When I was in Paris I saw a little oil painting, only
about a foot square; it was at the Paris exposition in
1867. I was going through the art gallery, and on that
painting there was a little piece of white paper that at-
tracted my attention. I went and looked at that white
paper, and it said, " Sowing Tares," and there was the
most hideous countenance I think I ever saw. A man
was taking out a handful of seed, sowing tares all around
him, and wherever a tare dropped there grew up some
vile reptile, and they were crawling up his body and all
around him. Off in the distance was a dark thicket, and
prowling around the borders of that forest were wild
beasts, and that hellish and fiendish look! What a fear-
ful thing it is for a man to sow tares when he is a-going
to reap them! And yet man goes on sowing with a liberal
hand, and laughs and scoffs when we warn him and tell
him what he is coming to by-and-by. The papers are
full of it. I sometimes think these papers ought to
preach the gospel to the people, ought to warn them to
flee from the wrath to come.

Look at that case we have just had in a court in New
Jersey. Look at that poor man . For four long days
the jury has been out. I don't know when my heart has
been more touched than when I read that scene in court,
when those little children climbed up on their father's
knee and said, " Papa, papa, come home. Mamma
cries so much now you are away." The law had him.

g6 Moody's sermons.

Poor man! He reaped what he sowed. He had an
uncontrollable temper. He took his weapon and shot
down a coachman because he got mad with him. He
never will get over it. He never can step back into the
place where he was. The jury may acquit him. Poor
man; he has got to reap a bitter, bitter reaping; what an
awful thing sin is; and yet men will stand up with all
these facts around them and tell you God is a hard mas-
ter and the devil an easy one.

Let us look at the scene in the court. A young man
just coming into manhood, twenty-one, promising, tal-
ented, gifted, beautiful young man, an only son; but he
has been out drinking, and in a drunken spree helped kill
a man, and now he is on trial for his life. In that court
sit his father and mother and three lovely sisters. That
is the only brother they have got . That is the only son
they have got. The jury bring in the verdict, guilty;
the man is sentenced to the penitentiary for life.

And with all these facts people stand up and say God
is a hard master, and the devil is an easy one. O, that
the God of heaven may open our eyes to-night to show
us how wicked it is to give these excuses, and that we
will have to answer for them at the bar of God — for a
person with an open Bible to say that God is a hard mas-
ter and that Satan is an easy one.

I remember of closing a young men's meeting in Chi-
cago a few years ago, when a young man got up and
said, ' ' Mr. Moody, would you allow me to say a few
words?" And I said, "Say on." " Well," said he, "I
want to say to these young men, that if they have friends
that care for them, and friends that love them, and that
are praying for them, I want to say you had better treat

EXCUSED. 97

them kindly, for you will not always have them. I want
to tell you something in my own experience. I was an
only son, and I had a very godly father and mother. No
young man in Chicago had a better father and mother
than I had; and because I was an only child, I suppose,
they were very anxious for my salvation, and they used
to plead with me to come to Christ. My father many a
time at the family altar used to break down in his at-
tempt to pray for his only boy. At last my father died,
and after my father died my mother became more anx-
ious than ever that I should become a Christian. Some-
times she would come and put her loving arms around
my neck and say, ' My boy, if you were only a Christian
I would be so happy. If you would take your father's
place at the family worship, and help me worship God,
it would cheer your mother.' I used to push her away
and say, 'Mother, don't talk to me that way; I don't
want to become a Christian yet; I want to see some-
thing of the world.' Sometimes I would wake up in the
night and hear my mother praying, * O God, save my
boy! ' and it used to trouble me, and at last I ran away
to get away from my mother's influence, and away from
her prayers. I became a wanderer. I did not let her
know where I went. When I did hear from home in-
directly, I heard that that mother was sick. I knew
what it meant. I knew it was my conduct that was
crushing that mother and breaking her heart, and I
thought I would go home and ask her forgiveness. Then
the thought came that if I did I would have to become a
Christian, and my proud heart would not yield. I would
not go. Months went on, and I heard again indirectly.
I believe that if my mother had known where I was she

98 Moody's sermons.

would have come to me. I believe she would have gone
around the world to find her boy. And when I heard
that she was worse, the thought came over me that she
might not recover, and I thought that I would go home
and cheer her lonely heart. There was no railway in
the town, and I had to take the stage. I got into town
about dark. The moon had just begun to sh^ne. , My
mother lived back about a mile and a half from the hotel,
and I started back on foot, and on my way I had to go
by the village grave-yard. When I got to it I thought I
would go and see if there was a new-made grave. I
can't tell why, but my heart began to droop, and as I
drew near that spot I trembled. By the light of the
moon I saw a new-made grave. For the first time in my
life this question came stealing over me, ' Who is going
to pray for my lost soul now? ' Father has gone, and
mother is dead. They are the only two that ever cared
for me, the only two that ever prayed for me. I took up
the earth and saw that the grave was a new-made grave;
1 saw that my mother had just been laid away; and,
young men, I spent that night by my mother's grave. I
did not leave it until daybreak; but as the morning sun
came up, right there by my mother's grave, I gave my-
self away to my mother's God, and then and there settled
the great question of eternity, and I became a child of
God. I never will forgive myself. I murdered that
sainted mother."

Poor man! He was reaping what he sowed. Tell me
that the way of the transgressor is easy! Tell me that
God is a hard master, and that the devil is an easy one!
Young men, take the God of your mother; take the God
of the Bible to be your God. Set your faces like a flint

EXCUSED. 99

towards heaven to-night, and it will be the best night of
your life. I wish I could say something to induce you
to come to Christ. I wish I could see souls pressing
into the kingdom of God. May the God of all grace
touch every heart here to-night!

LofC.

NO ROOM FOR HIM.

" And they laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in
the inn." — Luke, ii, 7.

For four thousand years the Jews had been looking for
this child. Away back in Eden, before Adam and Eve
were driven out. God had promised that the seed of the
woman should bruise the serpent's head. And from
Adam, all along down the ages, they had been looking
out into the mist and into the future for this child. The
prophets had prophesied of His coming, and the nation
had been in expectation. They were studying at that
very time the prophecies to find out when He would ap-
pear. And the first thing that we hear when He comes
to this country, there was not room tor Him in that little
inn at Bethlehem. He might have come with all the
pomp and the glory and grandeur of the upper world.
Perhaps if He had come with the glory of the angels,
and the glory of the Father, and His own glory, as He
will by-and-by, the nation would have received Him
then, because there would have been something that
would have pleased the flesh. But the idea of His com-
ing in such lowliness, the idea of His coming in such
humility, the natural man did not like it.

Just think for a moment what He came for; He came
to give rest to the weary; to seek and to save that which
was lost; to give sight to the blind; to help those that

IOO

the Nativity. Luke, ii, 7-20.

NO ROOM FOR HIM. IO3

needed help; to reveal the Father; to bring peace where
there was trouble; to heal the broken-hearted. And yet
there was not room for Him!

When the Prince of Wales visited this country, a few
years ago, there was plenty of room for him. There was
not any part of this nation that was not glad to give him
a welcome. Every city was anxious that he should visit
them. Every town and village and hamlet was open,
and would have given him a royal welcome if he would
have come to their place. When the princes of Europe
have come to this country, what a welcome they have
had! Although this is a republican government, yet
we have been willing to give the princes of earth a wel-
come. And yet when the Prince of Heaven came down
into this world, what a welcome did He receive? They
laid Him m the manger because there was no room for
Him in the inn. But I can imagine some one says,
' ' They did not know Him. If they had known who He
was, they would have given Him a welcome. " I think
you are greatly mistaken, because we read that when the
wise men arrived from the east in Jerusalem, and said to
the king, " Where is He that is born king of the Jews?''
not only Herod, but all Jerusalem was thrown into
trouble. Herod told those wise men to go down into
Bethlehem and inquire diligently about the young child,
and bring him word, that he, too, might go down and
worship the child. A lying hypocrite! He wanted to
slay the child.

Not only Jerusalem closed her doors against Him, but
when He went back to Nazareth, where He was brought
up, and brought the best news that was ever brought to
any town; when He went back to Nazareth with the

id4 Moody's sermons.

glorious gospel of God, Nazareth did not want Him.
They took Him out of the synagogue; they took Him
to the brow of the hill, and they would have hurled Him
into perdition if they could. They did not want Him.
There was not room for Him.

But, my friends, it is a very common saying now that
the world has grown wiser and better, that we have been
improving, and that if Christ should return, things would
be different, that we are in light, and that He came in a
dark age, that He was not then welcome, but He would
be now.

But I would like to ask you to think for a little while.
What nation would give Him a welcome now? Do you
know of any? They call America a Christian nation,
but has America room for the Son of God? Does
America want Him? Suppose it could be put to a popular
vote; do you suppose this nation would vote to have Him
come and reign? He would not carry a ward in this city;
you know it very well. He w7ould not carry a town o**
a precinct in the United States; you know it very well
A great many of your so-called Christians would say,
"We don't want Him; we are not ready." Things would
have to be straightened up, and there would be a great
change if Christ should come. The way men are doing
business, I think, would have to be straightened out.
Business men don't want Him. You put it to the com-
mercial men of the present day, and do you think they
would want Him? Do you think all the tricks in trade
would be carried on if He were here? Do you think all
this rascality that is going on at the present day under
the garb of commerce — a great many very noble men
are engaged in it — but do you think they want Him to

NO ROOM FOR HIM. IO5

come? When He comes He is going to reign in right-
eousness. I would like to have you tell me to-night of
any class of people that would like to have Him come
back. Do you think your politicians would want Him?
Do you think the republican party would want Him?
Do you think they would give Him a welcome? Do you
think the democratic party would want Him? What
would they do with Him? They have not got room for
Him; they do not want Him. All this rascality that is
carried on in politics would have to be done away with
if He came to reign in righteousness.

Does your fashionable society want Him, what they
call the ''upper ten" of the present time? Go up on
one of your avenues to some fashionable party, and see if
they- want Him. Begin to talk there about a personal
Christ, and how precious He is to the soul, and you will
not be invited a second time. They do not want Him,
and they do not want you if you live godly in Christ
Jesus.

The fact is, there is not any room down here for the
Son of God. Let a man get up in congress and say,
"Thus saith the Lord," and they will hoot him out of it.
Do you think all this trickery and rascality that is car-
ried on in halls of legislation would go on if Christ should
reign in righteousness, men selling their votes, men buy-
ing votes?

If you will stop and think a little while, you will rind
that not only this country, but no other country wants
Him. Do you think England wants Him? I think that
hellish traffic of liquor would have to be given up; the
opium trade with China, and a great many other things
would have to be given up. That is called a Christian

106 Moody's sermons.

nation. Let a man get up in parliament and say, "Thus
saith the Lord," and he would be hooted down. The cry
of the nation is, " Who is the Lord that we should obey
Him? " The voice of the king of Egypt has been echo-
ing through the world ever since. The world has not
room for Christ.

When He was here and went from village to village,
and from town to town, He did not receive a welcome;
they did not want Him.

Eighteen hundred years have passed since then; His
gospel has been proclaimed over hill and dale; men have
gone across seas and deserts and into all lands proclaim-
ing the gospel of Christ Jesus, and yet there are a great
many people right within the sound of the gospel that
do not want Him. The moment that you begin to
preach about the Son of God, they put on a long face as
if you had brought them a death warrant; makes them
gloomy. O, how the devil has deceived the world! How
men are under the power of the god of this world! Jesus
Christ did not come to cast us down, but to lift us up.
He did not come to make life dark and gloomy; He came
to make life sweet and beautiful; and when people make
room in their hearts for the Son of God, He will light
them up. The heart that is sad and cast down wrill be
light and joyful. He came to bless the world. He that
was rich became poor for your sake and mine. He
might have come with all the pomp and glory of that
upper world. He might have been born in a palace and
fed with a golden spoon. But He passed by palaces and
went into a manger, that He might get down into sym-
pathy with the poorest and the lowest. His cradle was
a borrowed one. The guest chamber where they insti-
tuted the supper was a borrowed one.

NO ROOM FOR HIM. 10?

The beast upon which He rode into Jerusalem was a
borrowed one. The only time we hear of His riding was
on a borrowed beast. We find also that the sepulcher
that they laid Him in was a borrowed one. The house
He lived in was a hired one or a borrowed one. He that
was rich and had all the glory of that upper world, who
Himself created the world, became poor for your sake
and mine. He laid aside all the honor and glory He had
in that upper world; He laid aside those robes and came
down here and tasted of poverty for your sake and mine,
and yet the world turn up their noses and say, "I have
no desire for Him; I don't want Him." There is a pass-
age in the seventh of John. I think the seventh and
eighth chapters never should have been divided. The
seventh chapter closes up in this way: He had been lift-
ing the standard very high that day, and many of His
disciples left Him. " Every man went into his own
house, and Jesus went to the Mount of Olives," the
opening of the eighth chapter says. I can imagine that
night was one of those lonely nights. He came into the
world to bless the world, and the world didn't want to be
blessed. He came to do men good, and they didn't want
to receive anything from Him. "And every man went
to his own house." Every door in Jerusalem that night
was closed against Him. At one time He said, "The
foxes have holes, the birds of the air have nests, but the
Son of Man hath not where to lay His head." Think of
it! The little bird you see flitting by you has its nest, its
home; the fox has its hole, but the Son of Man hath not
where to lay His head. I used to think I would like to
have lived in that day. I would like to have had a home
in Jerusalem to have invited Him to my home to be my

108 Moody's sermons.

guest, and to sit at His feet as Mary did, and let Him
talk to me. But I suppose if I had lived at that day my
door would have been closed against Him. But I re-
member thinking over it some time ago, and the thought
came stealing ever me that there is one place I can give
the Son of God a welcome, just one place, and that is
in my heart. It is the only place He wants to dwell.
Now, if we make room in our hearts for Him, He will
gladly come and dwell with us.

There was a woman right in the midst of this dark-
ness, when many disciples left Him, who came and invited
Him to her home, a woman by the name of Martha. I
can imagine Martha coming from Bethany one day, and
going to Jerusalem to the temple to worship, when the
great Galilean prophet came in, and she listened to His
words, who spake as never man spake. And as the
words fell from His lips they fell upon Martha's ear, and
she says, "Well, I will invite Him to my house." It
must have cost her something to do that. Christ was
unpopular. There was a hiss going up in Jerusalem
against Him. They called Him an impostor. The lead-
ing men of the nation were opposed to Him. They said
He was Beelzebub, the Lord of filth. They said He was
an impostor, and a deceiver. And yet Martha invites
Him to her home. I hope there will be some Martha
here to-night who will invite Him to her home, to be
her guest. He will make your home a thousand times
better home than it has ever been before.

Martha invited Him home with her. We read of His
going often to Bethany. That one act will live forever.
The noblest, the best, the grandest thing Martha ever
did was to make room in her home for Jesus Christ.

NO ROOM FOR HIM. IO9

Little did she know when she invited the Soji of God to
become her guest who He was; and when we receive
Jesus Christ into our hearts, little do we know who He
is. He is growing all the while. It will take all eter-
nity to find out who He is.

There was a dark cloud then over that home in Beth-
any. Martha didn't know it. Mary did not see that
cloud. It was fast settling down upon that home. It
was soon going to burst upon that little family. The
Savior knew all about it. He saw that dark cloud
coming across that threshold. We read that He often
lodged there. But a few months after He became their
friend and guest, Lazarus sickened. The fever laid hold
of him. It might have been typhoid fever. You can
see those two sisters watching over that brother. The
family physician is sent for to Jerusalem, and he comes
out and does everything he can to restore him to life and
health; but he sunk lower and lower. Some of us know
what it is when the doctor comes in and feels the pulse,
begins to look very serious and takes you off into another
room, away from the patient, and tells you it is a critical
case. Martha and Mary passed through that experience.
There was no hope, and Lazarus must die. They
thought if Jesus was only here He would rebuke this
disease. He might keep death from taking away our
only brother. They sent a messenger a good ways off
to tell Jesus His friend was sick, and this was the mes-
sage, " He whom thou lovest is sick." They do not ask
Him to come. They knew Jesus loved him, and that
He would come if it was for their good. The messenger
at last returned. He found Christ and delivered his
message. When he got back, he found that that cloud

IIO MOODY S SERMONS.

had burst upon that little home; that Lazarus was^dead
and buried. I see those two sisters as they gather
around the messenger. They said, " Did you find Him?"
' ' Yes, I found Him. " " What did He say? " "He said
the sickness was not unto death, and He would come and
see him;" and for the first time I see faith beginning to
stagger. Mary says, "Are you sure you understood
Him? Did He say the sickness was not unto death?"
"Yes." "Are you quite sure?" "Yes." "Well,''
says Mary, "that is strange. If He is a prophet He
should have known that he was dead. Elijah would have
known it. If He was a prophet, why He must have
known it. You hadn't been away from the house an
hour before Lazarus died. He was dead when you met
Him." " Well, that is what He told me. He said He
would come here and see him." I see those two sisters
as they kept watching for that friend to come and com-
fort them. How long those nights must have been as
they watched and watched. I can imagine they did not
sleep through the night. They listened to hear a foot-
fall. The next day they watched, and He did not come.
The second night passed, and He did not come. The
third day came, and He did not come. The fourth day
came, and a messenger came running in and says, " Mar-
tha, Jesus and His apostle are just outside of the walls
of the city. He is coming on toward Bethany." Martha
runs out and says, " If Thou hadst been here my brother
had not died. Thou wouldst have kept death away from
our dwelling." Jesus answered, " But thy brother shall
rise again."

I would give more for such a friend than all the infi-
dels in America. I would rather have such a friend than

NO ROOM FOR HIM. Ill

have the wealth of the world. When death has come
and taken my wife and taken my children, to have a
voice say to me, "I am the resurrection and the life.
He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall
he live." Little did Martha know whom she was enter-
taining when she invited Christ into her home. The
world has been sneering at Martha ever since, but it was
the grandest, the sublimest and noblest act of her life.
O my friends, make room for the Son of God in your
homes. Let the world go on mocking and scoffing. The
hour will come when the cloud will burst on your homes,
when death will come down in your dwelling and take
away a loved mother, a loved child, a loved father. Then
what is your infidelity and atheism? But the words of
the Son of God, how they comfort then! " Thy brother
shall rise again." "Yes, I knew that," says Martha.
He had probably taught them of the resurrection. "I
know he will rise again, for he was such a good brother.
He will rise at the resurrection of the just." Says the
Son of God, " I am the resurrection of the just. I
carry the keys with Me. I have the keys to death and
the grave." And He says, "Where is Mary? Go call
her." I hope there is some Mary here that will hear the
voice of the Son of God call to-night. They ran and
told Mary Jesus was there. I suppose Mary and Mar-
tha talked it all over, for Mary came out and said the
same words, " If Thou hadst been here my brother had
not died." ''Thy brother shall rise again." "Yes, I
know he will rise in the resurrection of the just." " I
am the resurrection of the just. Where have you laid
him? " Look at that company as they went along
toward the graveyard. These two sisters are telling

112 MOODY S SERMONS.

about the last words and last acts of Lazarus. Perhaps
Lazarus left a loving message for Jesus. You know what
that is. When you go to see friends who are mourning,
how they will dwell upon the last words and the last
acts of the departed one. You see Martha and Mary
weeping as they went along toward the grave, and the
Son of God wept with them. He had a heart to weep
with those who wept, and to mourn with those who
mourned. He is touched with a feeling of our infirmities.
He can comfort us in a time of sorrow.

He said, "Where have you laid him?" And they
said, " Come and see." And they led the way. He
said to His disciples, "Take away the stone." And
again those sisters' faith wavered, and they said, " Lord,
by this time he stinketh, for he has been dead four days."
They did not know who their friend was, and when they
rolled away that stone, Christ cried with a loud voice to
His old friend, "Lazarus, come forth!" and Lazarus
then leaped out of that same sepulcher and came forth.
Some old divine said it was a good thing He singled out
Lazarus, for there is such power in the voice of the Son
of God that the dead shall hear His voice, and if He
had not called Lazarus by name, all the dead in that
graveyard would have come forth. O, what blindness
and downright folly for a man or woman to be ashamed
of Jesus Christ! O, make a friend of Him who has the
keys of death; who has power to raise our dead friend!
Your own time is coming. The hour is coming when
the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and
come forth. It seemed to just pain the heart of the Son
of God when He was down here, to find so few people
that wanted Him. We read of His looking up toward

NO ROOM FOR HIM. 113

heaven, and sighing as He looked up toward that world
where all honored and loved Him, and it seemed as if
He just sighed for home. As He looked around Him,
He could see what death was doing. He could see what
sin was doing. There was death behind Him, on the
right hand and on the left; yet they were so few that
wanted Him, so few that cared for Him. He seemed to
look toward that world and sigh, just longed for the
time that God's will should be done on earth as it is up
there in heaven.

I would like to ask this congregation, did you ever
have the feeling come over you that no one wanted you?
I had it once. I remember, when I left my mother and
went off to Boston. I want to say, if a man wants to
feel that he is alone in the world, he don't want to go off
in the wilderness where he can have himself for company,
but let him go into some of these metropolises or large
cities, and let him pass down the streets where he can
meet thousands, and have no one know him or recognize
him.

I remember when I went off in that city and tried to
get work and failed. It seemed as if there was room
for every one else in the world, but there was none for
me. For about two days I had that awful feeling that
no one wanted me. I never have had it since, and I
never want it again. It is an awful feeling. It seems to
me that must have been the feeling of the Son of God
when He was down here. They did not want Him. He
had come down to save men, and they did not want to
be saved. He had come to lift men up, and they did not
want to be lifted up. There was not room for Him in
this world, and there is not room for Him yet.

114 MOODY S SERMONS.

O my friend, is there room for Him in your heart?
That is the question. There is room for pleasure. There
is room for lust. There is room for passion. There is
room for jealousy. There is room for the world. There
is room for everything but the Son of God; no room for
Him. When He made these hearts of yours and mine,
He made room enough for Himself, but a usurper has
come in and taken possession of His place. When He
made this world He made room enough for you and me
and for Him, but when He came, there was not any
room for Him. The only place they could make room
for Him was on the cross, and they put Him there. The
world to-day is a no greater friend of Jesus Christ than
it was when He was down here, but if His disciples will
only make room for Him, how He will come and dwell
with us, and bless us, and lift us up; and He says to us,
' ' If you will make room for Me down here, I will make
room for you up there. If you will honor and confess
Me down here, I will honor you in the courts of heaven,
and confess you up there in the presence of the Father
and the angels."

0 my friends, make room for Him to-night! Do not
go out of this house until you have made room for the
Son of God.

1 saw some time ago an account of a lady that went
in to see her neighbor, whom she found weeping as if her
heart would break. She said to her, "What is the
trouble?" " Well," she said, " there is my child. It is
fourteen years old to-day. For fourteen years I have
watched over and provided for that child. I have not
allowed my servants to take care of it. During the past
fourteen years there has not been a night but that I have

NO ROOM FOR HIM. I I 5

been up some part of the night with that child. I have
left society and spent my time at home with that child."
The child had not a mind. " But," she says, " if that
child would just recognize me once, it would pay me for
all I have done; but that child don't know me from a
stranger." Her heart was just breaking, and as, I read
I thought, ' ' How many of us treat God in the same
way? "

My friends, God has blessed you with health, and a
home in the Christian land. , He has blessed you with a
good wife; He has blessed you with children; He has
blessed some of you with property, and you never have
looked up once and recognized His loving hand, and
Raid, " Thank you, Lord Jesus."

O, this base ingratitude! May God forgive us, and
may we to-night make room in our hearts for the Son of
God! Just now, when He is knocking at the door of
your heart, just pull back the bolt and say " Welcome!
Thrice welcome! " and see how quick He will come.
What is He saying? Listen! Hark! Does the heart
throb? That is Christ knocking! " Behold, I stand at
the door and knock. If any man will open the door, I
will come in to him and sup with him, and he with Me."

O sinner, just unlock the door of your heart to-night.
Just throw that door wide open and say "Welcome!
thrice welcome, Son of God, into this heart of mine! "
and see how quick He will come and dwell with you.
He will never leave you; He will never forsake you. In
the time of trouble He will be your counselor. In the
time of sorrow He will be your deliverer. If you want
"a friend that sticketh closer than a brother," make
room in your heart for the Son of God. If you want a
friend that will help you in the time of temptation and
trial, make room in your heart for the Son of God.

THEIR ROCK IS NOT OUR ROCK.

" For their rock is not as our rock, even our enemies themselves being
judges." — Deut, xxxii, 31.

This was Moses' farewell address. He was about to
leave the children of Israel in the wilderness. He had
led them up to the borders of the promised land. For
forty long years he had been leading them in that wil-
derness, and now, as they were about to go over, Moses
takes his farewell; and among the good things he said,
for he said a great many very wise and very good thing?
on that memorable occasion, this is one, " For their rock
is not as our rock, even our enemies themselves being
judges." There was not a man on the face of the earth
at that time that knew as much about the world, and as
much about God, as Moses. Therefore he was a good
judge. He had tasted of the pleasures of the world. In
the forty years that he was in Egypt he probably sam-
pled everything of that day. He tasted of the world, of
its pleasures. He knew all about it. He was brought
up in the palace of a king, a prince. Egypt then ruled
the world, as it were. He had been forty years in Horeb,
where he had heard the voice of God; where he had
been taught by God; and for forty years he had been
serving God. You might say he was God's right-hand
man, leading those bondmen up out of the land of Egypt,

116

Moses Breaking the Tables of the Law. Exodus, xxxii,

19.

THEIR ROCK IS NOT OUR ROCK. 119

and out of the house of bondage, into the land of liberty;
and this is his dying address, you might say, his fare-
well address. This is the dying testimony of one that
could speak with authority, and one that could speak in-
telligently. He knew what he was saying, " Their rock
is not as our rock, even our enemies themselves being
judges."

Now, to-night I want to take up the atheist, the deist,
the pantheist, and the infidel; and I want to show, if I
can, and I think it is not a very difficult thing to show,
that their way is not as our way.

I know there is a good deal of dispute now about the
definition of these words. So, to avoid any trouble, in-
stead of going to the Bible I went to Webster's diction-
ary, and I have got the meaning. I suppose you will give
in, most of you, that Webster is wiser than yourselves.
There are a few men that are a little wiser than Web-
ster, for infidelity is generally very conceited. One of
the worst things about infidelity is the conceit. You sel-
dom meet an infidel that is not wiser in his own estima-
tion than the God who created him, and he wants to
teach God instead of letting God teach him. But those
that are willing to bow to Webster we will refer to his
definition of these words.

An atheist is " one who disbelieves or denies the exist-
ence of God." I am thankful to say that they are very
scarce. You meet them now and then. I am sorry to
say that you will occasionally meet a young man that
will tell you that he is an atheist. He believes there is
no God; he believes that there is no hereafter; that when
he dies, that is the end, that ends all.

I don't know of anything that is darker; I don't know

120 MOODY S SERMONS.

of anything that is colder, bleaker, than that doctrine;
for, of course, an atheist has feelings like the rest of us.
If he is a father, he has love for his children. Here is a
boy that has gone astray; he has been taken captive by
Satan; he has become a victim to strong drink, we will
say, and strong drink has got the mastery; and you can
see that boy as he is going down to a drunkard's grave.
He says to that father that believes there is no God and
no hereafter, "Father, is there no deliverance for me?
Is there no way that I can become a sober man?" " Yes,"
says the atheist, ' ' assert your manhood. Resolve that
you will never drink any more." "Ah, but, father, I
have done that a thousand times, and I can't keep those
resolutions. The tempter is too strong for me. My ap-
petite is stronger than my will-power, father. Is there
no God that created me that can help me? " " No, my
son, no; nothing outside of yourself." " And if I die in
this condition, what is going to become of me?" " O,
that will be the last of you." " And shall we never meet
again in the universe of God?" "No, never." Pretty
dark, isn't it? And that atheist sees that boy go down to
a drunkard's grave. There is no arm to deliver, no eye
to pity. There is no help.

Look again. He has got a beautiful little child. It
had lived long enough to twine itself around that father's
heart, and the cold, icy hand of death is feeling for the
chords of life, and that little flower is going to be plucked.
You can see that little child wasting away upon a bed of
pain and sickness. The child calls the father to its bed-
side and says, ''Father, is there no hereafter?" "No,
my child." " Shall we never meet again?" "No, my
child." "When I die, is that the last of me?" "Yes,

THEIR ROCK IS NOT OUR ROCK. 121

my child." Pretty dark, isn't it? That atheist goes and
lays away that child without one ray of hope, without
one star to relieve the midnight darkness and gloom.

A prominent infidel of this country stood at the grave
of a member of his family. He is an orator, an eloquent
man; and he said he committed him back to the winds
and the waves and the elements; it was the last they
would ever see of him. Pretty dark, isn't it?

And yet there are some men that want to go over to
atheism. They want to believe that there is no God. I
cannot for the life of me see where you get any comfort
in it. I turn away from it, and I say from the very
depths of my heart, " Their rock is not as our rock." I
thank God I have got a better foundation than that; I
thank God I have got a better hope than that. If my
boy is led astray, I can preach to him Jesus Christ, and I
can tell him that God Almighty has got power to deliver
him from sin, and from its mighty power; and if God
should take my child from me, I can say to that dear
child, li I will meet you on the glorious morning of the
resuriection. It won't be long. We may be separated
for a little while, but the night will soon pass, and the
great morning of the world will dawn upon us." Yes,
" Their rock is not as our rock even our enemies them-
selves being judges."

But I must pass on. That is the definition of an athe-
ist, one that believes there is no God. I want to say if
there were many atheists in this country we would have
a great many more suicides than wehave. These men
that have got tired of life, if they thought that death
ended all, they would quickly put themselves out of the
way, and you could not blame them for it. But I think

122 Moody's sermons.

there is something down in man's heart that tells him
there is a hereafter; that there is not only a God, but
there is a judgment to come.

Now a deist. A deist is one that believes in one God
only. He denies Christ and revelation. Deism is not
much better, I think, than atheism, for I never yet knew
a deist that knew anything about his God. He believes
there is a God, and that is all you can get out of him.

Deists live on their doubts. They live on what they
do not believe — on negatives. You meet a deist, and he
would tell you, " I don't believe this, and I don't
believe that, and that," and he is all the time telling you
what he don't believe. You seldom, if ever, find a deist
who will tell you what he does believe, because he knows
nothing about his God. If a man denies revelation, how
is he to know anything about God? How are we to
know our God if we are only deists, and just close that
book, and not believe in the book? Is He a God of mercy?
We know nothing about it. Is He a God of truth, and
equity, and justice? We know nothing about it. How
are we to know anything about God, if we cast away the
Bible, and say we don't believe in revelation; that we
don't believe that Jesus Christ came down here to declare
His Father, and believe that that book is not written by
inspiration, and doubt that blessed word of God? I would
like to have a deist come forward and declare to us his
God, and tell us who and what he is.

The pantheist. Let us see what Webster's definition
of a pantheist is. He believes that the universe is God.
He believes that God is in the wind, God is in the water,
God is in the trees, and all the God we know anything
about is the good we see about us. A pantheist will say,

THEIR ROCK IS NOT OUR ROCK. 1 23

''Why, yes, I believe in God. You are God, and I am
God. We are all gods." That is their idea, that God is
in everything. I strike that board, and I strike the pan-
theist's god, because that is as much a god as the god he
knows. I stamp upon the floor, and I stamp the panthe-
ist's god. That is all he knows. God is in everything;
God is everywhere; God is nowhere; that is the summing
up of pantheism. Now, you will find a great many of
these pantheists that will tell you they believe more in
God than we do, because they believe God is in every-
thing all around. But when you ask a deist or a pan-
theist if his God answers prayer, he will tell you no.
"Does He hear the cry of distress?" "No." "Does
He hear the cry of the humble? " He will tell you that
the Lord of the universe and the God of the universe
has just made this world, and has wound it up as a clock,
and it is going to run; that His laws are fixed; that you
need not pray; you can't change God's mind; that He
never answers prayer. If your child has gone astray, you
can't pray to Him, because He has no mercy. There is
no mercy but in the wind, and you may as well go out
and pray to the thunder, to a storm, or a shower, to the
moon, the sun, the stars, because God is everything and
everywhere, and yet is nowhere. They don't believe in
the personality of God. You may just take pantheism,
deism and atheism, put them all together, and there is
not much difference. I would as soon be the one as the
other, because they are in midnight darkness and gloom.
They know nothing about the God of love and the God
of the Bible.

But now we come, perhaps, to the most difficult class,
because I think that there are a great many infidels, and

124 MOODY S SERMONS.

don't like that name. I suppose that saying they were
infidels had offended quite a number of people in this city.
They stand up and deny it. But when you come to put
the question right to them according to Webster's defini-
tion of infidelity, they are nothing but infidels. Now, an
infidel is one that does not believe in the inspiration of
the Scriptures.

I am sorry to say that we have got to-day a good
many infidels. The first step toward atheism is infidel-
ity. The first step toward pantheism is infidelity. The
first step toward deism is infidelity. The moment you
can break down that word in one place and make out
that it is not true, then, of course, the whole word goes.
Now, you ask an infidel if he really believes in the Bible,
and he says, "Well, I believe part of it. I believe all
that corresponds with my reason, but I don't believe any-
thing supernatural. I don't believe anything I can't rea-
son out. "

Now, if a man takes that ground, he might as well
throw away the whole Bible, and go over to atheism at
one leap. He need not be weeks and months going,
because that is where it is going to bring him. If you
take out of that book all that is supernatural, you might
as well take out the whole of it. From beginning to
end it is a supernatural book. Look into Genesis. You
ask an infidel if he believes in the flood. No, sir; not he.
Then throw out Genesis; because, if the man who wrote
Genesis put in one lie, why is not the whole of it a lie?
If he did, he must have known it was a fraud when he
wrote it, so that condemns Genesis. You ask a man if
he believes the story of the Red sea, about bringing the
children of Israel through the Red sea. Not he. That

THEIR ROCK IS NOT OUR ROCK. 1 25

is contrary to reason, contrary to man's intellect. Out
goes Exodus. That throws out the decalogue, throws
out the commandments. It all goes together. If the
man who wrote Exodus told a lie in the beginning of
Exodus, and that the children never went through the
Red sea, then away goes the whole book.

Then take up Leviticus. It is said in Leviticus if we
will do so-and-so, He will come down and walk with us,
would be among His people, and the shout of the king is
heard in the camp. "Do you believe that?" "No,
sir," the infidel says, "I don't believe anything of that
kind." Out goes Leviticus. Throw it all out.

Do you believe God told Moses to make a brazen ser-
pent, and that all the bitten Israelites that looked upon it
shall live? The skeptic turns up his nose, and says with
a good deal of contempt, " No, you don't think I am fool
enough to believe that?" Out goes the whole book of
Numbers; throw it out, because if the man that wrote
that book put that lie in, the whole of it is a lie. You
just prove that I tell a willful lie here to-night, and my
whole sermon is gone. You go into court and testify to
a lie, and let it be proven that you have told a wilful lie
(and untrue in one thing, untrue in all), out goes your
testimony. The jury won't take it. Now, if the man
that wrote the book of Numbers put down that lie, if he
never did make a brazen serpent for the children of
Israel, then the whole book of Numbers is gone. Throw
it out. Then we come to Deuteronomy. Do you be-
lieve Moses went up into the mountain, and his natural
force was not abated, his eye had not grown dim, and
he died there, and God buried him; God kissed away his
soul, as some one has said? The infidel says, "I don't

126 Moody's sermons.

believe one word of it; that is supernatural; that is
against reason. " Then throw out the whole of Deuter-
onomy. There go the first five books of Moses.

Then go into Joshua. " Do you believe Joshua took
Jericho by going around Jericho blowing rams' horns? "
" Don't believe a word of it." Tear it to pieces. Throw
it away. Out it goes. If the writer of that book would
tell a lie like that at the beginning of the book, he lied
all through it, why not? That is what an infidel is — one
who does not believe in supernatural things.

" Do you believe that Samson took the jaw-bone of
an ass, and slew a thousand men? " " No, I don't believe
it." Out goes the book. Because from the beginning
of Judges to the end, it is all supernatural.

' ' Do you believe God called Samuel when he was a
little boy — that God called him?" " Why, no," says the
infidel, ' ' I don't believe anything that is contrary to my
reason. I don't believe anything supernatural." Out
go the two books of Samuel.

' ' Do you believe that David went out and met Goliath,
and slew him?" "No, I don't believe it." Out go
the two books of Kings. And so I can go on through
the whole Bible. Take out the supernatural in it, and
you have to throw away the whole Bible. You can't
touch Jesus Christ from His birth until He went up into
glory, but what He was supernatural. The work that is
going on now is supernatural. Things are happening
every day that are supernatural. Every man that is born
of the Holy Ghost, born of God; it is supernatural. Yet
an infidel will stand right up and tell you to-day, that he
will not believe a thing in that book that don't corre-
spond to his reason; therefore the infidels are just tear-

THEIR ROCK IS NOT OUR ROCK. 1 27

ing the Bible all to pieces. That is where we are drift-
ing to. " Their rock is not as our rock, even our enemies
themselves being judges."

Now, I would like to ask the infidels what earthly motive
could the early Christianas have had in writing that book?
What motive could Jesus Christ have had in coming*
down here and living such a life as He led? Some of
you accuse us of working for gain. You say that we are
after your money, and that we don't care anything about
your soul. You cannot accuse our Master of that, can
you? He didn't carry off much money, did He? His
cradle was a borrowed one. The only time that He
rode into Jerusalem that we have recorded, He rode in
on a colt, the foal of an ass. It would be a strange sight
to see Him coming into this city in that way. You
would not own Him. And He did not own this beast.
It was a borrowed beast. It was a borrowed guest
chamber in which He instituted His supper. It was a
borrowed grave in which they laid Him. He that was
rich became poor for our sakes. What motive could He
have had in coming down here if He had not been true
and real, if He had been an impostor, a hypocrite, com-
ing down here and teaching us a falsehood? If Jesus
Christ was not God manifest in the flesh, He was the
greatest impostor that ever came into this world, and
every Christian throughout Christendom to-day, is guilty
of idolatry, of breaking the first commandment, " Thou
shalt have no other god before Me." He comes and
says unto the world, " Come unto Me, and I will give
you rest." Elijah never said that; Moses never said that;
no man that ever trod this earth dared to have said it;
and if Jesus Christ had not been divine as well as hu-

128 Moody's sermons.

man, it would have been blasphemy, and the Jews ought
to have put Him to death. They had a right by the
Jewish law to put Him to death. He an impostor? He
a deceiver? He a fraud? Away with such doctrine! And
yet people will stand right up here in this community,
and tell you it is all a fiction about His conception by
the Holy Ghost, and at the same time they will stand
right up and say they are Christians. They don't like
that word infidel. They say they are no infidels. But,
ah, my friends, if we break down the testimony of Jesus
Christ, and make Him out a fraud and deceiver, it all
goes.

Now, when people tell me that that book is not to be
relied upon, I tell them that I will throw it away when
they will bring me a better one. I am ready to throw it.
away to-night, if you will bring me a better one. But
where is there any book to be compared with it? Bring
H on, will you! When you bring on a better man than
Jesus Christ, I will follow Him. But don't ask me to
follow these skeptics and infidels down here, who are
trying to tear down the works of Jesus Christ when they
have no better to leave in their place.

Now, Jesus Christ, was without spot or blemish, You
can find no fault with Him or in Him. We don't want
to follow any one else until we can find a better man. If
these men that are scoffing and sneering at Christ will
bring on a better man, we will follow him. If they will
bring on a better book, we will take it. But until they
do, let us cling to the Bible, and defend it, and stand by
it, and let us stand by Jesus Christ, and let us defend
Him.

Infidelity takes everything away from us, and gives us

THEIR ROCK IS NOT OUR ROCK. 129

nothing in return. When Lord Chesterfield went to
Paris, he was invited out to dine with Voltaire, the lead-
ing infidel of that day. Lord Chesterfield was a Christ-
ian man. A lady, at the table, when they were at dinner,
said, ' ' Lord Chesterfield, I am told that you have in
your English parliament five or six hundred of the lead-
ing men of thought in the nation." Well, he said he be-
lieved that was so. She said, ''Then why is it that
those wise men tolerate Christianity?" Well, he said
he supposed because they could not get anything better
to take its place.

Do you ever stop to think what you would put in the
place of Christianity? It is easy enough to tear down,
or at least try to tear down. There are some people that
spend all their lives in trying to tear down things that are
good, but they give us nothing in the place of them.
Now, the trouble with infidelity is it gives us nothing in
the place of what we have got. The Bible holds out a
hope to man. It holds out something that is beyond this
life, and gives him hope. Infidelity gives him no hope.
It tears down all the hope he has got. He has got nothing
to build on. If this book fails, what have we got? Now,
just think a moment. Take the Bible away from us,
and what have we got? I would like to say to the people
here to-night, if you step into a church (for I am sorry
to say some of these infidels have got into the pulpit),
if you step into a church and hear a man talking about
Jesus Christ not being divine, if you take my advice, you
will get out of that church as quick as you can get out.
But you say, " My father and mother belong to that
church." Suppose they do. You get out, as Lot got
out of Sodom. Make haste. You think a man who

130 MOODY S SERMONS.

would sell you poison, and kill your children is a horrid
man; but I tell you a man who would plant infidelity in
the mind of my child is worse than a man who gives it
poison; by him their young minds are poisoned, and
infidelity taught them under the garb of Christ and
Christianity; and yet there are some men who profess to
be friends of that book who are all the time trying to
tear it to pieces, and make out that it is not written by
inspiration; that it is not from God, and that it cannot
speak with authority.

Now, to show that ' ' Their rock is not as our rock, even
our enemies themselves being judges," I want to tell you
a thing that happened some time ago. I was in the room
with a man, and he said he wanted to have a talk with
me, " But," he says, " I wish you would let that man go
out." " O, " I said, "he is here to take care of the
things." We had some of our things in the cloak-room
back of the platform, and he was there so that no thief
should come in and steal what we had. And this man
said, " I would like to have him go out." "Well," I
said, " he belongs here. I will ask him to go out if you
insist upon it, but," says I, " I will talk at this end of the
room." "Well," he said, " I would like to have him go
out." I spoke to the man, and asked him to leave the
room, and he hadn't more than got out before he opened
his lips, and such a tirade against Christianity! I said
to him, ' ' My friend, why did you want that man to go
out?" " Well," he said, " I though it might hurt him."
I said, " If it is good for you, why is it not good for him?"
"Well," he said, "he did not like to have his children
know his views." He said his wife was a Christian,
and he wanted his children brought up differently.

THEIR ROCK IS NOT OUR ROCK. 131

" Their rock is not as our rock, even our enemies them-
selves being judges." I want my children to believe as I
believe. I want them to be taught to love and fear and
honor God. If these infidels think infidelity is good for
them, why is it they don't want it taught to their chil-
dren? Why is it that so many infidels want their children
to be taught the Lord's prayer?

Very often when I have been in an infidel's house he
has wanted his wife and children to leave the room, and
then he has gone on, and talked his infidelity. "Their
rock is not as our rock, even our enemies themselves
being judges." That proves it.

A man ordered his servant out of his dining-room, and
after his servant went out, he began to talk his atheism
to a Christian man that was there. The Christian man
said to him, "Why did you order out your servant?"
"Well," said he, "I'm afraid if he held my views he
might cut my throat some time, for my money."

You laugh at it, but if there is no God, why not? If
there is no hereafter, why not? If this country is as bad
as it is with all the religion we have got, what would it
be without it? Let this country go over to infidelity;
what would become of the nation? It was not a great
many years ago that, in a convention, at Lyons, in
France, they voted that the Bible was a fiction, that it
was not true, and that there was no God; that there was
no hereafter; that death was an eternal sleep; and it was
not very long before blood flowed very freely in France.
And you let atheism, and pantheism, and deism, and in-
fidelity go stalking through this land, and life and prop-
erty won't be safe. You know it very well.

Lord Lyttleton and Gilbert West were going to expose

132 MOODY S SERMONS.

the fraud of Christianity. One was going to take up the
resurrection and expose that. The other was going to
take up Saul's conversion and expose that. And they
went about it; went to studying up those two facts. The
result was they were both converted. The testimony
was perfectly overwhelming. If a man will look at the
testimony, I can't see for the life of me how he can doubt
these are facts. What did Paul have to gain by his con-
version? Would you call such a man as Paul a fraud?
What did he give up for the gospel's sake? Reputation,
position, standing, everything he had. What did he get
in return? Hunger, persecution, prison, stocks, stripes
and death. He died the death of a common criminal.
He died at Rome, as a poor and miserable outcast in the
sight of the world. What earthly motive could he have
had, if these things are not true? Why, we have all the
proof that any man could ask for, that Jesus Christ rose
from the dead. He was seen ten different times, and
was here among us forty days, and then He was seen by
the holiest and best men on earth at that time ascend
and go up into heaven. They went and looked into the
sepulcher and found it was empty. There was no doubt
about His body coming out of the grave. Some men
say they believe in Christianity, but they don't believe
Christ's body came up. Do you think they could have
stolen that body and palmed that fraud off on the world
for these eighteen hundred years? Do you think those
keen Jews of Jerusalem would never have found out the
fraud and deception? Away with such a delusion! Christ
rose; He burst asunder the bands of death. He has
come out of the sepulcher and passed into the heavens,
and taken His seat at the right hand of God. We don't

THEIR ROCK IS NOT OUR ROCK. 133

worship a dead Savior. Our Christ lives. He is on the
throne to-night. Let us look up, for the time of our re-
demption is nigh. Let us gird up our loins afresh. Let
us buckle on the whole armor, and fight for Christ. Let
us hold to the faith. Let us not be influenced by the
infidelity around us, but let it drive us to the Bible. Let
us cling to this good old book. It will be darker than
midnight ere long if we let our confidence go in that
book. I saw an account some time ago of an infidel who
was dying. So many infidels recant when they die! Did
you ever hear of a Christian recanting? I never did.
Did you ever hear of a Christian dying that was sorry
that he had served the Lord Jesus Christ? I never did.
I have heard of a good many that regretted that they had
not served Him a good deal better than they had; that
they had not lived more like Him. The infidel friends
•of this infidel gathered around him. They were afraid
he was going to recant, and if he did, the Christians
would make capital out of it. They gathered around
him and said, "Hold on, hold on to your principles;
don't give it up now." The poor, dying man said,
"What have I got to hold on to?" You answer the
question, will you? What has an infidel got to hold
on to?

Some time ago, I was drawing a contrast between the
end of that talented man, Lord Byron, and Paul. Byron
died at the early age of thirty-six. The time allotted
to man is threescore years and ten.

A fast life, a life of dissipation, carried him off carl}".
These are about the last lines he penned:

" My days are in the yellow leaf,

The flower and the fruit of life are gone;
The worm, the canker and the grave,
Are mine alone."

134 Moody's sermons.

That is all he had at the close of life. But look at
Paul's farewell. He writes to Timothy, " I have fought
the good fight. I have kept the faith; henceforth there
is laid up for me a crown of righteousness." There is a
good deal of difference between the death of a skeptic
and an infidel and the death of the righteous. " Their
rock is not as our rock, they themselves being judges."
How often you have heard men say, " I wish I could be-
lieve as you do." What do they want to believe as we
do for, if they are satisfied with their rock? " I wish I
had your hope." What do you want our hope for if you
are satisfied with your rock? " O, I wish I had the as-
surance you have." What do you want our assurance
for if you are satisfied with your rock? The fact is,
" Their rock is not as our rock, our enemies being
judges." We will bring them in as witnesses and let
them testify. Let us, my friends, hold on to the word
of God. When these skeptics and infidels talk against
the book, let us love it all the more. Let it drive us to
the word. Let us say we will give up life rather than
that book. We will hold on to that, let it cost us what
it will. The world may call us fanatics and fools, and all
that, but they cannot give us any worse name than they
gave the Master. They called Him Beelzebub, the
Prince of Devils, and we can afford to be called fools for
Christ's sake for a little while, and by-and-by we will be
called home, and, if we will hold right on, the end will
be glorious.

A soldier, during the war, got up in one of our meet-
ings in Chicago. He had just come from the battle of
Perryville. He said bis brother came home one day and
said he had enlisted. He went down to the recruiting

THEIR ROCK IS NOT OUR ROCK. 135

officer and put his name next to his brother's; there was
no name between them; he said they had never been
separated one day in their lives, and he said he did not
mean to have his brother go into the army without him.
He said they went into the army, and they went into a
good many battles together. The terrible battle of Perry-
ville came on. About ten o'clock in the morning his
brother was mortally wounded. A minie ball passed
through his lungs. He fell by his side, put his knapsack
under the head of his dying brother, pillowed his head,
and made him as comfortable as he could; bent over and
kissed him, and started away. The dying man says,
"• Charlie, come back here. Let me kiss you upon your
lips." He came back, and his brother kissed him on the
lips and said, ' ' There, take that home to my dear mother,
and tell her that I died praying for her." And he said
as he turned away, and his brother was wallowing in his
blood, and the battle was raging all around him, he heard
him say, ' ' This is glorious. " He turned around and
Went back, and said, ' ' My brother, what is glorious? ''
"O," he said, "it is glorious to die looking up. I see
Christ in heaven."

It is glorious to die looking up. But if we die looking
up, we have got to live looking up. We have got to
live trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ. O, in this dark
day of infidelity, when it is coming up all around, let us
hold on to the glorious old Bible, and to the blessed
teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ.

TEKEL.

" Tekel." — Daniel, v, 25.

I want to have you get the text to-night. It is so
short I am quite sure you that have short memories can
carry it away with you, if you will just listen to it; and
if some one asks you after the meeting is over, I hope
you will be able to give my text and the meaning of it.

In this short chapter of thirty-one verses we get all
we know about Belshazzar. His history was very brief.
We are told that he had a feast of his lords; he had a
thousand of his noblemen, his lords, his mighty men,
gathered there at Babylon. How long that feast lasted
we are not told. Sometimes those eastern feasts used
to last for six months. We are told that this young king
was praising the gods of gold, of silver, of brass, of iron,
of wood, and of stone; and all at once silence reigns in
that banqueting hall. The king had sent out into the
heathen temple, and had had the golden vessels that had
been taken by his grandfather, Nebuchadnezzar, that
had been brought down from Jerusalem, brought into
that impious feast, and while they were rioting and
drinking and carousing, judgment came suddenly and
unexpectedly. And I think if you will read the word
of God carefully, you will find that judgment always
comes suddenly and unexpectedly. While that feast is

136

Belshazzar's Feast. Daniel, v.

TEKEL. I 39

going on, and all is merry, over on the wall, over the
golden candle-sticks, is seen a hand, and there is a finger
writing the doom of that king. He sends for the wise
men of Babylon to come in and read that writing. He
offers the man that can read the writing shall be clothed
in fine linen, and in purple; he shall have a golden chain
around his neck, and shall be made the third ruler in the
realm. Those wise men tried to read it, but they were
not acquainted with God's handwriting. That is the
reason these skeptics and infidels don't , understand the
Bible; they don't know God's handwriting. With all
the wisdom of the Chaldeans, they could not make out
that handwriting. They failed, utterly failed. The
king and all his lords were astonished. They never had
seen it on that fashion before. It was a strange hand-
writing. The queen comes in, and she tells the mon-
arch that there is a man in his kingdom; he has not
been heard of for fifteen years; where he has been we
are not told; but she tells Belshazzar that when Neb-
uchadnezzar reigned, and the wise men failed to tell him
his dream and the interpretation, there was a man by the
name of Daniel that could tell the king his dream and
the interpretation, and if Belshazzar should send for this
prophet, he might be able to read that handwriting on the
wall. Daniel is sent for, and the king says to him, " If
you read that handwriting and tell me what it is, I
will give you great gifts, and [ will make you the third
ruler in the realm." When that prophet looks up there,
you can imagine how silence reigns through that audi-
ence. Every eye is upon him. The king looks at him,
and as he makes this offer to the prophet, the prophet
says, ' ' Let your gifts be to others, but I will read to you

I40 MOODY S SERMONS.

the handwriting." He knew his God's writing. It was
very familiar to him, and without any difficulty he can
read, " Mene, mene, tekel, upharsin." "What does it
mean?" cries the king. "Mene, mene, ' Thy kingdom
is numbered and finished.' Tekel, 'Thou art weighed in
the balances, and art found wanting.' Upharsin, 'Thy
kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Per-
sians.'" And that night Belshazzar's blood flowed with
the wine in his banquet hall. That very night they
could hear Cyrus coming with his army up through the
streets of Babylon. He turned the Euphrates out of its
channel and brought his army under the walls of the
city, and that very night Belshazzar's army was de-
feated, the men around the royal palace were driven
back, Belshazzar was slain, and Darius took the throne.

But it is not my object to-night to talk about that
king that reigned twenty-five hundred years ago. I don't
want to take you back that far. I want to get down to
this city if I can. I want to get into this audience to-
night, and I want to ask every man and woman in this
assembly, if you should be summoned into eternity at
this hour, or at the midnight hour, what should be said?
' ' Thou art weighed in the balances and art found want-
ing."

The other night I preached from the text, "There is
no difference," and I tried to measure men by the law.
To-night I propose to weigh them by the law. We find
here this illustration of the balances used by God him-
self. Tekel means, " Thou art weighed in the balances
and art found wanting." Let us imagine there were
scales let down into this building, not of our making;
God is going to weigh us; we are not going to weigh

TEKEL. I4I

ourselves. The great trouble with men is they are try-
ing to weigh themselves all the while, and they are
making balances of their own. When we are weighed,
we are to be weighed in God's balances, not man's.
The God who created us is going to weigh us. Let us
imagine that the scales are fastened by a golden chain to
the throne of God, who sits yonder in the heavens, a
God of equity, a God of justice; and those balances come
down to-night into this building, and here they are right
before us, and every man, woman and child in this as-
sembly has to be weighed. Now, the question is, are
you ready to be weighed? A man begins to look around
to his neighbors and other people, and says, ' ' Yes, I am
ready to be weighed. I am as good as the average."
But that is not the way to look at it. What we want is
to look at the law. We are to be weighed by the law
of God. The God that created us has given us a law,
and among all the skeptics and infidels that I have met,
I have not found any that complained of that law. The
trouble is not with the law. The trouble is with our-
selves.

Now, I have to-night some weights. You know when
you go into a store to buy goods they take weights and
weigh out your goods. Now, I have ten weights. I am
going to put them in the balances, and I want this audi-
ence to come up and get in. As I put the weights in on
one side, you come up and get in on the other side and
see if you are ready to be weighed by the law of God.

We will now put in the first weight, ' ' Thou shalt have
no other gods before me." People who live in America
think there is no such thing as idolatry. They think
they have to go off into China, Japan or some heathen

142 Moody's sermons.

country to find idols. Don't flatter yourselves. We have
idols in America. You have not got to go far from this
city to find them. You will find a thousand idolaters, I
was going to say, where you find one true Christian that
worships the God of the Bible. Anything that a man
thinks more of than he does of God is his idol. A man
may make an idol of his wealth. A man may make an
idol of his wife or his children. A man may make an
idol of himself; a good many do that. They think more
of themselves than of anything else in the wide world.
They worship themselves. They revere themselves.
They honor themselves. Self is at the bottom and top
of everything they do. Then there are a good many that
worship the god of pleasure. Look at your young men
to-day, and your young ladies that bow down to the god
of pleasure. ''Give me a night in the ball-room, and
you may have heaven with all its glories. What do I
care? Give me a night that will satisfy me in this world,
and I care nothing about the world to come." There are
a good many gods. It would take all night to enumerate
the gods you have got here in this city. There are a
good many that bow down to that god of gold, that
golden calf we read of in Aaron's day. * ' Give me money, ''
is the cry of the world. " You may have the Bible with
all its offers of mercy and heaven. You ma)7 have every-
thing else if you will only give me money, and give me a
nice house up here on your avenue, and a good turnout
and all the money I want. That is all I ask for. I will
just be willing to trample the Bible, and all its com-
mandments, and all its offers of mercy under my feet.
That is my god. " ' • Thou shalt have no other gods before
Me."

TEKEL. 143

Now, what is your god to-night? What do you think
most of to-night? O, that the spirit of God may wake
us up to-night! If we are trusting any idol, if we have
some idol in our heart, may God tear it from us, because
God says, "Thou shalt have no other gods before Me."
The sin of idolatry is one of the worst of sins. In that
book there is more said against idolatry, perhaps, than
any other sin. God will have the first place or none.
Yet there are a great many men trying to give God the
second place. They say, "Business has got to be at-
tended to, I have got to attend to business, and if I have
a little time after attending to business, I will attend to
my soul's wants." Instead of giving the soul the first
place, they give the body and this life the first place. We
take a good deal better care of our bodies than we do of
our souls. You know that very well. Most people
think a great deal more of this life than of the life to
come. They think a great deal more of the gods around
them than of the God of the Bible, and the God of
heaven.

The next weight is very much like it. We will put
that weight right in the balances, ' ' Thou shalt not bow
down thyself to any graven image, or any likeness of
anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth
beneath, or that is in the water under the earth." "Thou
shalt not bow down to any image." I am not to even
worship any cross or crucifix. I am not to bow down to
anything but the God of heaven. I am not to worship
any pictures, even if they are pictures of Jesus Christ,
not any graven image. I think it is a great mistake that
artists try to make pictures of the God of heaven and
earth. It is a fearful thing. We are not to make any

144 MOODY S SERMONS.

graven image of anything and then bow down to it.

But I must pass on rapidly. " Thou shalt not take
the name of the Lord thy God in vain." Blasphemers,
come on now and be weighed. We will put that in the
balances. You step in and see how quick you will go
up; how quick the balance will kick the beam. If every
blasphemer in this house was to be weighed to-night,
what would become of his soul?

" Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God
in vain." It is astonishing to hear men blaspheme and
curse God, and when you talk to them they say, " I don't
mean anything by it. " Well, God means a good deal
when He says He "will not hold him guiltless that
taketh His name in vain."

Do you know that profanity is just man's showing his
enmity to God? If God hadn't told man not to swear, I
don't think He Would have thought of it; but just be-
cause God has said, "Thou shalt not swear," he wants
to show his contempt of God by trampling His com-
mandment under foot, and spurning the grace of God.
They say they can't help it. Yet these very men, when
their mother is around, seldom if ever swear. That,
shows they have more respect for their mother than they
have for the God of heaven. If the wife happens to be
around, or the children very often, they will not swear.
Yet they will curse God, and swear to God's face, chal-
lenge God, as it were, to do His worst, and blaspheme.
Yet when you talk to them about it they say, "O, well;
I can't help it." It is false. Man may not of his own
strength be able to turn from that sin, but God will give
him grace. If a man has a new heart, he will have no
desire to swear.

TEKEL. 145

If a man is born of God he will not want to take God's
name in vain. Let the blasphemers in this house to-night
remember that God is not going to "hold him guiltless
that taketh His name in vain." If every blasphemer in
this assembly should be cut down to-night with cursing
and blasphemy upon his conscience and upon his heart,
what would become of his soul? It is a fearful thing.
You look upon a thief as a horrid monster, many of you,
and you think he is a curse to the community, but is it
not as bad to break God's laws as to break the laws of
the state? You elect men to your legislature to make
laws for you, and you think the laws which they make
ought to be revered and honored more than the laws of
high heaven. Here is a law from heaven, and that law
says, ' ' Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy
God in vain." Man shows contempt for God and his
laws, and goes on blaspheming.

The next weight we will put in the balances is, " Re-
member the Sabbath day to keep it holy. " As it looks
to me, we are drifting into a dark age. We thought
when we had slavery in this country that it was a great
curse to the land; but we have something worse to-day.
If this nation gives up its Sabbath, we are not going to
see blood flow in a few southern states, but it will not
be long before it will flow in all our cities; it won't be
long before we will see a darker day than this nation
has ever seen. No republic can exist without righteous-
ness. If men are going to violate the law of God, if you
teach men to break God's law, how long will it be before
they will take the laws of man in their hands and tear
them, as it were, to pieces and throw them to the winds,
and trample them under their feet?

We have to teach men to honor God's law if we expect

146

them to honor the law of man. We see this desecration
of the Sabbath increasing every year, giving up a little
here and giving up a little there. A few years ago in
Chicago we did not have a theater open on the Sabbath,
but now every theater is open. Every Sunday night
those theaters are crowded. I want to say to the work-
ingmen, if you give up the Sabbath, you give up the
best friend you've got, and it will not be long before
these capitalists will take your Sabbath, and make you
work seven days in the week, and you will not earn a dol-
lar more than you do now in six days. God is our
friend; He would not have given us one day in seven un-
less it was for our good. Man needs it, beast needs it.
So let us honor the Sabbath day and keep it holy. If
we have to give up our business and get some other busi-
ness, let us do it, even if we don't make quite so much
money. It is a good deal better for us to be right, to
know we are honoring God, and to have God on our
side, than it is to be breaking God's law. If a father
teaches his .child not to observe the Sabbath, takes him
out riding on Sunday, teaches him not to go to the house
of God, it will not be long before that boy will break his
father's commandments. You teach him to dishonor
God's law, and he will dishonor yours. Is not that so?
Does history not teach you that? Look around you.
Have you got to go to the Bible to find that out? Is it
not so? You take a man that goes around on the Sab-
bath, who don't teach his boy to go to Sabbath-school
and to church, but teaches him to play marbles, and it
will not be long before that boy will break that father's
heart, if he has a heart.

Throw this commandment into the balances, and, Sab-

TEKEL. 147

bath-breaker, step in. If you do, what will become of
you? You would find written on the wall, "Tekel.
Thou are weighed in the balances and art found want-
ing." If a man cannot keep one day out of seven, what
is he going to do with that eternal Sabbath in heaven?
He will not want to go there. Heaven would be hell to
him.

I must pass on. " Honor thy father and thy mother."
That is another thing that shows we are drifting into a
dark age. Men seem to be void of natural affection.
Now, I want to call your attention to this fact. Wherever
you see a young man or young lady treating their parents
with scorn and contempt, you may just mark that they
will never prosper. I am not an old man, and I am not
a prophet, but I have lived long enough to notice that I
have yet to find the first case where a young man or
young lady has started out in life that has dishonored
father and mother, that has treated them with scorn and
contempt, that has ever prospered. I believe to-day one
reason why so many men's ways are hedged up, and they
do not prosper, is because they have dishonored their
parents. I do not know of anything that is more con-
temptible. I do not know of anything that sinks a man
lower in my estimation, than to hear him speak disre-
spectfully of his father and mother, that cared for him
in his childhood, that watched over him in sickness, and
did everything they could for him.

A young man that will go out and get drunk and come
home at midnight, or one or two o'clock in the morning,
knowing his gray-haired mother is sitting up for him and
weeping, is crushing that mother, just breaking her heart,
just murdering her by degrees. I do not know why it is

14B Moody's sermons.

not just as bad to murder your father and mother, break
their hearts and take months to do it, and to kill them,
as it is to take a revolver and shoot them down at once.
There are hundreds of young men doing that to-day. You
haven't got to go out of this city to find them. I ven-
ture to say while I am talking here to-night some young
man is in a brothel, or in some saloon or billiard hall,
who will go home to-night or to-morrow morning beastly
drunk, and curse the mother that gave him birth, and
curse her gray hairs, and perhaps lift up that great strong
arm of his and beat that mother. Or some husband will
go and be untrue to some wife, and go home, and if she
says a word, down comes that right arm upon her. Yes,
it is only one, two or three murderers we have perhaps
in jail at a time, but how many walk the streets of this
city to-day? I tell you, a young man that don't honor his
father and mother need not expect to prosper in this
life, or in the life to come.

There was a young man who used to think considera-
ble of his parents. He was a very fine looking youug
man. His father was a great drunkard, and his mother
used to take in washing just to give that boy an educa-
tion. She kept him at school and worked hard to do it;
but one day he was out on the sidewalk talking with his
mother. She had been washing, and was not dressed
as well as some ladies. He saw a school-mate coming
toward him, and he walked away from that mother. The
school-mate asked him who that woman was he was talk-
ing to, and he said it was his washerwoman. Ashamed to
own his own mother! You laugh, young lady. Shame on
such a man as that. I think we ought to be ashamed of
a man that would speak that way of a mother who is

TEKEL. 149

toiling day and night to give him an education. " Honor
thy father and thy mother." Treat them kindly; you
will not always have them. By-and-by they will be
gone. No one in the wide world loves you like that
mother. No one in the wide world loves you like that
father. Treat them kindly. Make the evening of their
lives as sweet as you can. It will come back again. You
will have children by-and-by, perhaps, and they will treat
you kindly. But bear in mind, if you treat that father
and mother with scorn and contempt, by-and-by, after a
few years have rolled around, you will be paid back in
your own coin. ' ' Be not deceived. God is not mocked.
Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap." The
reaping is coming, and men have to reap the same seed
that they sow.

You treat that aged mother of yours with scorn and
contempt and expect God to smile on you and prosper
you, and you will be deceived.

If there is a man or woman in this audience to-night
that is not treating father or mother with respect or
kindness, let him step into the balances and see how
quick they will strike the beam. You will be found
lighter than dust in the balances. You will find that
word " Tekel" blazing out. " Thou art weighed in the
balances and art found wanting."

But I must pass on.. " Thou shalt not kill." I sup-
pose if you had said a few months ago to some of those
men that have been killing lately that they were going to
come to that, they would have said, " Am I a dog that
I should do it?" They thought they would not; but
when Satan takes possession of a man, you don't know
what he will do; you can't tell. When a man goes on

I 50 MOODY S SERMONS.

step by step from one thing to another, it will not be
long before he will be guilty of almost any crime. I have
not got to kill a man to be a murderer. If I wish a man
dead, I am a murderer at heart. That is murder. If I
get so angry with a man that I wish him dead, I am
guilty in the sight of God. God looks at the heart, not
at the outward man. We only look at the acts of men,
but God looks down in the hearts. If I have murder in
my heart, if I wish a man or woman dead, I am guilty.
"Thou shalt not kill." As I said before, there area
good many men who are not looked upon as murderers,
that really kill their parents, kill their children, kill their
wives. How many drunken men have murdered their
wives! They have literally killed them inch by inch.
They have gone to the altar and sworn before the God
of heaven they would love, cherish, protect and support
that woman, and inside of five years they have become
horrid monsters, and beaten that defenseless woman,
until at last she has gone with a broken heart into the
grave. Nothing but a cruel husband murdered that wom-
an. "Thou shalt not kill." Do you think a God of
judgment, a God of equity, a God of mercy will not bring
those men into judgment?

But I must pass on. We will put those six weights
right up there, and come to the next. I would pass over
this commandment if I dared, but when I see what the
enemy is doing, when I see the terrible, terrible state of
things we are having all around, in all kinds of society,
high and low, I feel that I must cry out and spare not.
"Thou shalt not commit adultery." It is a sin that is
not much spoken of. It is one of those things that we
like to pass over. We hear a good deal about intemper-

TEKEL. 151

ance, but the twin sister of intemperance is adultery to-
day. I want to read to you something that will express
what I want to say, perhaps, better than I can myself,
the seventh chapter of Proverbs.

I want to say to the young people in this audience to-
night, I do not know of a quicker way to ruin, I do not
know of a quicker way down to hell than the way of the
adulterer. Do you know that the average life of a fallen
woman is only seven years? It is very short. How a
woman can surrender her virtue and take that road is
one of the greatest mysteries of the present day, when
they can look around and see how they have brought
ruin and blight upon their life, and made it dark and
bitter.

Not long ago a scene occurred in Chicago of a mother
that left her family in Iowa and a man that left his, and
they came to Chicago, and after getting tired and sick of
their life, and remorse, I suppose, seized hold of him, at
the hotel where they were, he cut her throat from ear to
ear, and as she fled from him into the hall, he cut his
own from ear to ear, and fled into the hall and embraced
her, and the adulterer and adulteress died in each other's
arms. What a fearful ending! That is occurring all the
while from one end of the land to the other. "Thou
shalt not commit adultery! " And I want to say to these
libertines, these men that think they can commit that
sin and cover it up, and think it never will come to light;
some of them come to our public meetings; some of
them come into our churches, and they sweep down the
broad aisle, perhaps, with their wives upon their arms.
They take the best seats, perhaps, in our churches, and
they think the crime is covered up. Be not deceived.

152 Moody's sermons.

You ruin some man's daughter, and some vile wretch
will ruin yours. You will find it out by-and-by.

Do you think that God is not going to bring men to
judgment for this thing? Do you think that men can go
on, and that they can get clear, and the women be cast
out? They say the thing is unequal. Well, it may be
among men, but bear in mind there is a God of equity
sitting in the heavens, and this thing is going to become
straight by-and-by. Not that the women are excused;
one is as bad as the other. It is a sin, and it is a fearful
sin. It is a sin we must cry out against at the present
time. Don't let any adulterer or adulteress think he or
she is going into the kingdom of God. And I want to
say to the men here to-night, if you are bound to some
fallen woman, if you are to-night guilty of that awful sin,
give it up or give up heaven. If God should summon
you into those balances to-night, what would become of
you, vile adulterer, what would become of you? And
you, poor, fallen woman! you step in and see what would
become of your soul. " Thou shalt not commit adultery."

I want to say once more, before I pass this command-
ment, that people may cavil and laugh and make light of
it, as they do; but it is one of the greatest evils of the
present day. Many a man's life is ruined, many a family
has been broken up, and many a mother has gone down
to her grave with a broken heart, because a son or a
daughter has been ruined. It is time that the church
of God should send up one cry that our children should
be kept. It is a day of temptation. It is a day of trial
on our right hand and on our left. We are living in a
day of decayed consciences, as some one has said. Men
are losing their consciences. It is astonishing how a man

TEKEL. 153

can talk. I got a letter from a man to-day, the first letter
I got to-day. He stated he was living this kind of a life,
and he seems to have no conscience about it, and he
wanted to have me pray that they may be separated, and
he says if there is a God they will be separated. He
doubts whether or not there is a God. Men get so
steeped in sin that they want to stifle conscience, they
want to deceive themselves, and they begin to reason
that there is no God at all. You will find out by-and-by
there is a God. Bear in mind, God will bring you into
judgment by-and-by. Because sentence is not executed
at once is no sign He is not going to execute the sentence.
Because God don't bring men to judgment at once is no
sign He will not come to judgment. He will come.
Paul reasoned with Felix, ' ' Of righteousness, temper-
ance and judgment to come. " God has appointed a day
when He will judge the world. Men may cavil and
laugh as much as they like, but the day is appointed, the
hour is fixed, and men have got to come to judgment,
and then sins which you have committed in secret, and
which you think are covered up, will come to light and
be made public, unless they are covered by the blood of
Christ; unless you repent and turn from them and ask
God to have mercy upon you. They will be blazoned
out to that great assembled universe.

But I must pass on. "Thou shalt not steal." Is
there a man here to-night that is a thief? O, no; you can
say there are no thieves here. Ah, don't you flatter your-
self. There is many a man that thinks he is not a thief,
that is a thief. When that young man takes twenty-
five cents out of his employer's till to go to the theater,
he is a thief as much as if he stole five thousand dollars

154 MOODY S SERMONS.

and got caught. When a man appropriates to himself
one dollar that belongs to some one else, he is a thief in
the sight of God. A drop of water is water as much as
Lake Erie is water; and the. man that steals five cents is
a thief in the sight of God as much as if he stole five
hundred dollars. Some men think that they are not
thieves unless they get caught; and they think if they
cover up their tracks and don't get caught they never will
be brought to judgment. God's eyes are going to and fro
through the earth. If you have a dollar that belongs to
some one else, I beg of you, as a friend, to make restitu-
tion before you go to bed to-night. Pay it back if you
want the light of heaven to flash across your path, if
you want the smile and approbation of God to rest upon
you, pay it back. You will not prosper as long as you
have some one else's money. " Thou shalt not steal."
Now, go to thinking. Have you anything that belongs to
some one else? Have you cheated any one? Have you
jumped on to these horse-cars and not paid your fare
sometime when there was a great crowd, and the con-
ductor did not come around for it? That is stealing just
as much as if you had been a defaulter or a forger. Have
you been on the steam-cars, and the conductor did not
happen to come around and get your fare, and have you
said, " I have got a ride for nothing?" You are a thief.
You laugh at it, but it is not to be laughed at. What
we want to-day is righteousness in this nation. What
we want in the church to-day above everything else is
downright honesty; and may God give it to us! These
things are not to be laughed at. Do you know how men
become defaulters? Just in that way. They take a little
to begin with, and conscience comes up and smites them;

TEKEL. 155

but the next day they take a little more. Conscience
don't trouble them so much. By-and-by they stifle con-
science, and they can go on and do anything. That is the
way these forgers begin, that is the way these defaulters
begin, that is the way these great noted criminals begin.
It is just the entering wedge. It is a little thing in their
sight. But I tell you what we want to remedy is sin, and
sin is not little. If there is a man here to-night who has
commenced a downward course, commenced a dishonest
life I want to beg of you to-night, before you sleep, make
up your mind, God helping you, that you will straighten up
any dishonesty of which you have been guilty, let it cost
you what it will. Make restitution.

" Thou shalt not bear false witness." I wish I had
time to dwell on that, and the next, "Thou shalt not
covet."

There are those ten weights. Now, you cannot be
weighed by one of them; you must be weighed by the
whole. Is there a man or woman in this audience that
is ready to be weighed? Come! I have heard so much
about morals — is there a moral man here to-night? Are
you ready? Have you not broken the decalogue? Is there
a man or woman in this audience that has never broken
any of those commandments? If you have broken one,
you are guilty. Those are not ten different laws, but one
law; and if I have broken one of those commandments, I
have broken the law of God, and I am guilty.

Let the moralist come up to-night and step into the
scales, and see how quick he will kick the beam. Bring
on the moralist. He walks up to those golden scales,
and he sees written there, " Except a man be born again
he cannot see the kingdom of God." He says, "You
will excuse me to-night, sir. I can't be weighed." He

156 Moody's sermons.

don't like to step in over the text. He knows very well
he will be found wanting. He knows very well it will
be said, " Tekel; Thou art weighed in the balances and
art found wanting." He goes around on the other side
of the scales, and he sees, " Except ye be converted, and
become as little children, ye shall not enter into the
kingdom of Heaven." " Well," he says, " I think I will
not be weighed to-night." He is not quite ready to be
weighed after all. You know these texts were given by
Christ to the moralists of His day. But, says the moralist,
"I will step in, I guess, on the other side. I don't like
to step in over this text," and he goes around on the
third side, and there he sees, "Except ye repent, ye
shall all likewise perish." He says, ' ' I will not go in on
that side." He steps around to the fourth side. "Ex-
cept your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of
the scribes and pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into
the kingdom of Heaven." " Well," he says, "I think
I will not be weighed in those balances." But bear in
mind, God is going to weigh 'you in them. You have got
to be weighed in them.

Let the rumseller step up to the scales and see if he
is ready to be weighed. As he steps up to those scales,
he finds written there in golden letters, " Woe be to the
man that putteth the bottle to his neighbor's lips."
" Well," he says, " I think I won't be weighed to-night."
He is not ready.

Let the drunkard come, rumbottle in hand. He looks
at those scales and sees, " No drunkard shall inherit the
kingdom of God." He says, "I will not step in there
to-night. I am afraid it will be found written on the
wall, as it was on Belshazzar's wall, ' Tekel; Thou

TEKEL. 157

art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting."'
Where is there a man to-night that is ready to be
weighed? I can imagine a man up in the gallery says:
"I wonder what Mr. Moody would do if he was to be
weighed. I wonder if Mr. Moody is ready to step into
those scales and to be weighed." I want to tell you I
am; and I say it, I hope, without any boasting or ego-
tism. You may put into the scales all those command-
ments, every one of them, and I am ready to step in
against them. Do you want to know how? I will take
Christ in with me. I took Him as my Savior twenty odd
years ago. I am ready to step in those scales with Him
at any time. He will bring it down. He kept the law.
He was the end of the law for righteousness' sake. That
is man's only hope. I would not dare to be weighed
without Him; but with Him I am ready at any time, day
or night. If God calls me to step into those scales to-
night, I will step in; and I will step in with a shout, too,
and I will not be looking on the wall to see if it is writ-
ten "Tekel: Thou art weighed in the balances, and art
found wanting," because Christ has kept the law, and I
have got Him. He offered Himself to me, and I took
Him. He offers Himself to every guilty sinner here to-
night. To every man and woman who has broken that
law there is a Savior offered, there is salvation offered,
and you can have it and live forever. But without
Christ, what are you going to do?

NO DIFFERENCE.

You will find my text to-night in the third chapter of
Romans and the twenty-second verse. ' ' For there is no
difference." I will venture to say there are a good many
here to-night that will differ with the text. But I didn't
make it; and I am not going to quarrel with you. If you
don't like it, you must settle it with the Word of God. I
just give it to you as I have got it. If I had a servant
working for me, and I should send that servant to deliver
a message, and he thought it didn't sound right and should
change the message, I think I should change servants. I
should want him to deliver the message just as I sent it.
If I am going to be the messenger of God to-night; if I
am going to preach the gospel to you, I have to give
you the law as well as the gospel.

Now, we find in this third chapter of Romans, Paul is
bringing in the law to show man his guilt. If a man
wants to read his own biography, he should turn to the
third chapter of Romans, and he will find it all there. A
great many men are anxious to get their lives written.
Why, they are already written. God knows more about
you than you do about yourselves. If you want to find
out what man is by nature, all you have to do is to read
the third chapter of Romans. It is all there. If you
want to find out what God is, read the third chapter of

i58

Saul's Conversion. Acts, ix,

NO DIFFERENCE. l6l

John, and you will read that God so loved the world,
even fallen man, that He gave His Son to die for him.

Now, I do not know a text in the Bible that the natural
man dislikes any more than this one. I have a great
many people attack me for preaching this doctrine of
"No difference." I was led to take it up to-night by
what I heard last night in the inquiry-room. There was
a moralist there, that is, he said he was a moralist; and
he could not understand just how he was as bad as other
people. Now, the longer I live, and the more I mingle
with men, the more I am convinced that moralists are
scarce, after all. There are a great many who think
they are very moral; but I venture to say, if your sins
and my sins — I won't leave out one now; I take every
man and woman in this audience — if all our secret
thoughts, and all that has been in our hearts, should be
written on yonder wall, there would be the greatest stam-
pede you ever saw. You would get out of this hall as if
you were struck with the plague. You know very well
that if your sins were all brought to light, you would not
talk about being moralists, or about being so very good.
Now, man is not so very good by nature after all. "The
heart is deceitful above all things." Man is being de-
ceived by his own heart. Man is bad by nature. I
don't think you have got to go outside of yourself to find
out that you are bad. If you will only get a look at
yourself, if man could only see himself as God sees him,
he would not be talking about his righteousness. It
would be gone very quick.

Now, just the moment we begin to preach from this
text, man begins to strengthen up a.nd say, ' ' I don't be-
lieve it." We think we are a little better than our neigh*
bors, a little better than other people.

1 62 Moody's sermons.

The next verse throws light upon it. " There is no
difference, for all have sinned and come short of the
glory of God." Every one!

It would be an absurd thing to make a law without a
penalty. I believe the state of Massachusetts, a few
years ago, did make a law without a penalty, and that
legislature became the laughing stock of the whole state.
What is a law without a penalty? Suppose your state
legislature should pass a law that no man in the state of
Ohio shall steal, and fix no penalty to it, the thieves
would be in your houses before you got home to-night.
What do they care for a law that has no penalty? God's
law has a penalty to it. There are not ten different laws.
They are one law. Some people seem to think the ten
commandments are ten different laws. They are one
law. If you have broken one of them, you have broken
the law, and are therefore guilty. I need not break the
decalogue to be a sinner; if I break one of these com-
mandments, I have broken the law of God. You need
not take up all the rails on the railroad track between
here and Chicago to have a collision — only one rail. A
man may say he has a good fence around his pasture,
but if he leaves one gap, the cattle get out. What is the
fence good for? Take one inch of pipe out of that gas
pipe, and the gas is cut off from this building. You need
not take out all the pipe; take out one inch, and there is
no gas. So if a man has broken the law of God, he is
guilty; he is a criminal in the sight of God. That is the
teaching of the third chapter of Romans. You will find
it all through the teachings of Christ; he that breaketh the
least of the law is guilty of all. Why? Because he has
broken the law of God. He has transgressed the law of

NO DIFFERENCE. 163

God and become guilty in the sight of a pure God. A
perfect God could give nothing but a perfect law, a per-
fect standard. There is no trouble about the law. Your
life and property would not be safe if it were not for the
law. The law is all right. Skeptics find fault with the
Bible. You seldom find an infidel attacking the law of
God. That is all right. We have to have law; could
not live without law. The trouble is, man has broken
the law of God. If you have broken one commandment,
you are guilty in the sight of God. If I was hanging
from yonder ceiling by a chain of one hundred links, and
one link should break, down I would come. The links
do not all need to break to let me fall.

When God put man in Eden, he bound him to the
throne of heaven by a golden chain. When Adam fell,
he broke that golden chain. Man is lost. He is out of
communion with God. Some men say, " Well, do you
pretend to say I am as bad as other people? " I don't
know but what you are worse. The moralist straightens
up and says, ' ' I am not as bad as that drunkard. Do
you call me as bad as that thief, that adulterer, and that
libertine? Do you call me as bad as that forger, that
defaulter? " I don't know but what you are worse; really,
I can't tell. God judges us according to the light we
have had. Suppose I have had nothing but light from
earliest childhood up; that I have been nursed in a relig-
ious family; I have heard all about God, but I turn my
back upon all His teachings, and I praise myself because
I think I am better than other people, and call myself a
moralist. Here is a young man who has a cursing father
and a cursing mother, and has heard nothing but cursings
and blasphemies. He has had no light. It may be I

164 Moody's sermons.

am worse in the sight of God than that man. The idea
of a man drawing the filthy rags of self-righteousness
about him and thinking he is better than other people!
The fact is, there is not anything that grows on this
Adam tree that is good. It is all bad. I will admit
that some men have more fruit than others. Suppose
you have two trees, both miserable, worthless, good for
nothing. One has five hundred apples, and the other
only five. One has more fruit, but both bad. So one
may be more fruitful in bringing forth sin, but both bad.

A friend of mine went into a jail some time ago and
fell to talking with the prisoners. He began to talk with
one who was a murderer, and he tried to rouse the man
up to talk about his awful guilt, but the man thought he
was not so very bad after all. " Why," said he, "you
talk as if I was the worst man in the world. There is a
man down in the other cell who has killed six men; I
have only killed one." There he was trying to justify
himself. That is the cry all over the world at the pres-
ent time. Men are measuring themselves by men, and
they think that because they have not committed as
many sins as other people they are not so bad. If they
could just get a glimpse of their own hearts, they would
see that they were black and vile.

Now, God never gave the law to save any man. The
law was given that every man's mouth might be stopped,
and the whole world become guilty before God. When
a man gets a good look at himself in God's law, he does
not try to make out that he is better than other people;
he gets down in the dust, and he cries, " God be merci-
ful to me a sinner."

Suppose an artist should come here to this city and

no difference:. 165

advertise that he could photograph men's hearts; that
he could get a correct likeness of what is in a man's
heart, do you think he would take a single likeness in
all this city? People arrange their toilets, go to the
artists and get their photographs taken; and if the artist
flatters them a little, and makes them look a little better
than they really do look, they say, ' ' Yes, that is a very
good likeness," and they send it to their friends and pass
it around by post. I got one to-night from a friend, and
it was a very fine one.

But suppose you could get a photograph of your heart.
Do you think you would send that around? There is not
a man in this city who would have a photograph of his
heart taken. You know it very well. There is not any-
thing that will close a man's mouth about his being so
pure, and good, and moral, as to get a look at himself in
God's looking-glass. The law is God's looking-glass
dropped down into the world that man may see himself
as God sees him. Or, in other words, the law is made
that man may see how he has fallen short of God's
standard.

Just a little while before the Chicago fire, I said to my
family at breakfast that I would come home after dinner
and take them out riding. My little boy jumped up and
said, " Papa, will you take us up to Lincoln park to see
the bears?" "Yes, take you up to Lincoln park to see
the bears." You know that boys like to see animals. I
hadn't more than gone off before he began to tease his
mother to get him ready. She washed him, put a white
dress on him, got him all ready. Then he wanted to go
outdoors. When he was a little fellow he had a strange
passion for eating dirt, and when I drove up, his face was

1 66 Moody's sermons.

all covered with dirt, and his dress was dirty. He came
running up to me and wanted me to take him up in the
carriage to Lincoln park. Said I, " Willie, I can't take
you in that state; I have got to wash you." "No, I'se
clean!" "No, you are not. You are dirty. I shall
have to wash you before I can take you out riding."
" O, I'se clean, I'se clean! Mamma washed me." "No,"
I said, "you are not." The little fellow began to cry,
and I thought the quickest way to stop him was to show
him himself. So I got out of the carriage, and took him
into the house, and showed him his face in the looking-
glass. That stopped his mouth. He never said his face
was clean after he saw himself. But I didn't take the
looking-glass to wash him with. I took him away to the
water. The law is only given to show man his needs,
to show man his guilt, not to save him. The law is a
schoolmaster to bring him to Christ. But the law never
saved a man, never will, and never can. The law con-
demns me, shows me my guilt; but Christ comes and
saves me from the curse of the law. Paul says, in this
very chapter, that the law was given that every mouth
might be stopped ; and when men will get done measur-
ing themselves by their neighbors, by their friends, and
will begin to measure themselves by God's law, they will
see just where they are. They will see how they have
sinned and come short of the glory of God; and they will
not see it before.

Why, you may go to yonder prison at Columbus, and
you will find there, probably, a thousand prisoners, more
or less. Some of them are there for forgery, some for
rape, some for theft, some for manslaughter, some for
murder; and you will find, perhaps, a hundred different

NO DIFFERENCE. 1 67

kinds of prisoners. But the law makes no difference.
They have all sinned, and come short of the require-
ments of the law of the state. They have broken the
law. They have transgressed, and when they came to
that prison, they all went in alike. Their hair was cut
short, and they put on the garb of the prison, and they
are there. " There is no difference." The law of this
state recognizes "no difference." They are criminals.
They are guilty.

Not long ago one of these whisky men was taken up
by the law, a man estimated to be worth a million dol-
lars, and he was sent to the prison, and when he got to
the prison door, and wanted to take his trunk in, they
said, " No, you can't take that." " Well," he said, " I
am afraid I can't get on with the prison fare, and I have
brought a few things for my own comfort." "No,"
they said, ' ' there is no difference here. The law recog-
nizes no difference."

You may divide society into a hundred classes. There
are the rich and the poor, the learned and the unlearned,
men of culture, men of science. But the law of God
recognizes no difference. If a man has broken the law
of God, I tell you, my friends, there is no difference; and
the quicker you can find it out, the better. A man up
here on this avenue, worth his millions, who dies with-
out Christ, without God and without hope, goes down to
his grave like a beggar, and there will be no difference
one minute after his death; and ten days after he is in
his grave, the worms will feed upon his body as they
would upon a beggar. We make a great difference, but
God does not look at things as we do.

Now, the object of this discourse is to get you people

1 68 Moody's sermons.

to-night to give up measuring yourselves by other peo-
ple. If you want to get a correct measurement, meas-
ure yourself by the law of God, and see where you are.
A few years ago, when the city of Chicago was in-
corporated as a city, they gave the mayor power to ap-
point policemen. When the city was small, the plan
worked very well, but when it got to be large; it was
too much power in one man's hands, and he would use
that power to secure his re-election, and the thing worked
disastrously for the city government. Some citizens
went to Springfield to our legislature, and got through a
police bill that took the power out of the hands of the
mayor, and placed it in the hands of a board of police
commissioners. The law provided that no man should
be a policeman unless he was of a certain height. I re-
member there was a great rush to headquarters to get
appointments as policemen. Men were going all over
the city getting recommendations, because it was said
no man would get an appointment that hadn't a good
character. Now, for my illustration. Suppose that
Mr. Doane and myself want to get in as policemen; we
are running around getting letters from leading men of
Chicago. We meet at the door at the appointed time,
and I say, " Mr. Doane, I think I have as good a chance
as any man in this crowd. I have letters from United
States senators, representative in congress, the mayor
of the city and judges of the supreme court." " Well,''
says Mr. 'Doane, ' ' I have letters from the same ones,
and I am sure they do not speak any more highly of you
than they do of me." I step up to the commissioner and
lay down my letters, and the commissioner says to me,
' ' Mr. Moody, those letters may be all right, but before

NO DIFFERENCE. 1 69

we read those letters, we will measure you. The law
says you must be of a certain height." I stand up and
am measured, but I don't come within the requirement
of the law. The law says I must be five feet and six —
for illustration, call it that— and I am only five feet. I
do not come but within a half a foot of it, and he hands
the letters back to me and says, ' ' Your letters may be
all right, Mr. Moody, but you have come short of the
standard-; the law says you shall be five feet and six
inches." Mr. Doane looks down upon me, and he says,
"Mr. Moody, I am a little taller than you are." I say,
"Mr. Doane, don't say anything; wait until you are
measured." Mr. Doane steps up, and he is five feet five
inches and nine-tenths of an inch. He has come short
only one-tenth of an inch. There is no difference.

The way to measure yourself is by God's requirements.
Is there a man here who is willing to be measured to-
night? Are you willing to be measured by the law of
God, and not by your neighbors and by your friends?
That is working the mischief. People are all the time
measuring themselves by their neighbors and friends. Be
measured by the law of God, and see where you are. I
do not know of anything that will stop a man's mouth
quicker. He will not be talking about being better than
his neighbors if he measures himself by God's law. Have
you kept it? That is the question.

I can imagine Noah leaving the ark and going out to
preach from this text, ' ' There is no difference. Every
man that does not get into the ark shall perish." Those
antediluvians would have laughed at him; they would
have said, " Noah, you had better get back into the ark,
and not talk that stuff to us." " There is no difference.

I70 MOODY S SERMONS.

All are a-going to perish alike," says Noah. "Every
man that does not get into the ark will perish." They
would have caviled at him and laughed at him. I doubt
whether or not they would not have stoned him to death.
But did that change the fact? The flood came and took
them all away; kings, governors, judges, rulers, drunk-
ards, harlots, thieves, all swept away alike. "There is
no difference, for all have sinned and come short of the
glory of God." I can imagine Abraham leaving his tent,
and Lot going down into Sodom a few days before
Sodom was destroyed, and preaching from the text.
"There is no difference; God is going to rise in judg-
ment upon these cities of the plain. Every man that
does not escape from this city God will destroy. When
he comes to deal in judgment there will be no difference."
Those Sodomites would have laughed at him. They
would have told him he had better go back to his tent
and his altar. But the fire came, and they were all de-
stroyed alike. The king of Sodom, princes, governors,
rulers, all perished alike.

I can imagine Christ preaching to those men in Jeru-
salem. "God is going to judge Jerusalem, and when
God comes in judgment, there will be no difference."
And when God judged Jerusalem,. eleven hundred thou-
sand perished. There was no difference. All perished
alike.

It seems to me I got a glimpse in the Chicago fire of
what the judgment will be, when I saw that fire rolling
down the streets of Chicago, twenty and thirty feet high,
consuming man and everything in its march that did not
flee. I saw there the millionaire and the beggar fleeing
alike. There was no difference. That night our great

NO DIFFERENCE. 171

men, learned men, wise men, all fled alike. There was
no difference. And when God comes to judge the world,
there will be no difference. Because you are in a higher
position, or because you have a little wealth, because
you have a title to your name or some position in this
world, if you are out of Christ, out of the ark, it will
make no difference. God has provided an ark of refuge.
God says, "Come in." God has provided salvation.
"The grace of God hath appeared bringing salvation to
all men." You spurn the offer of mercy. You just turn
aside from this gift. Many a man is kicking this un-
speakable gift around as he would a foot-ball, as if it was
not worth picking up. Whose fault is it? God has
provided salvation for all. Many a man turnb his head
with a scornful look and says, " I don't want it." Ah,
my friends, if you refuse this gift, you must perish. There
will be no difference when God comes in judgment.

Wherever man has been tried without God, he has
been a failure. God put Adam in Eden, surrounded
with everything that heart could desire, and Satan
walked in and stripped him of everything he had. I
don't believe Satan was in the garden thirty minutes
before he had everything that Adam had. He was a
failure. Then God took man and made a covenant with
him. He says to Abraham, "I will multiply thy seed
as the stars of heaven, and as the sand which is upon the
seashore. " After that covenant, man was a failure. He
turned away from God. What a stupendous failure
man was under the judges! Then we find God bring-
ing them to Sinai and giving them the law. Who would
have thought they were not going to keep it? Moses
went up into the mountain to have an interview with

172 MOODY S SERMONS.

God and took Joshua with him, and was gone but forty
days. Those men gathered around Aaron and said,
"Where is Moses? We do not know anything about
him. Make us a god to worship. " They brought gold
to him, and he made them a golden calf. These very
men that were going to keep the law, inside of thirty
days were bowing down and worshiping a golden calf,
and their children have been at it ever since. More peo-
ple to-day bow down to the golden calf than to the God
of heaven. Man away from God is a stupendous failure.
Man was a failure under the prophets. Now, we have
been two thousand years under grace, which means un-
deserved mercy; and what is man under grace but a
failure without God? Pick up your daily papers and look
at your daily records. Look at that transaction in Cin-
cinnati within forty-eight hours! Look at what is oc-
curring in all the towns, cities and villages! Man away
from God is a failure. When will man learn the lesson?

But I can imagine some of you say, " Is there no star
to light this darkness? Are we to be left under this law?"
Right here comes this gospel. Jesus came to redeem us
from the law. Christ was the end of the law for right-
eousness sake. He has atoned for sin. He has by the
sacrifice of Himself put away sin. The law cannot touch
me. Blessed truth! The law condemns me, but Christ
saves me. The law casts me down, but Christ lifts me
up. If you can afford to turn away from such a Savior,
and go on in your sins and take the consequences, you
can take a greater responsibility upon yourself than I
would dare to do.

Perhaps, I can illustrate this by an incident that oc-
curred during our war. When the war broke out, there

NO DIFFERENCE. 173

was a young man in New England, who was engaged to
be married to a young lady. He enlisted for three years.
Letters passed between them. He wrote to her after
every battle. The three years were nearly up. She was
counting the days before he would return. The battle of
the Wilderness came on. She got no letter for some
time. Day after day she went to the little village post-
office, but got no letter; but at last one came in a strange
handwriting, written by one of his comrades. She tore
it open. It stated that he had lost both of his arms in
that battle, and how he loved her, but as he would be
dependent upon the charities of a cold world for his sup-
port, and as she was worthy of a noble husband, he re-
leased her from the engagement, and she was at liberty
to marry whom she pleased. She never answered that
letter. The next train that left that little village for the
south she was on. She went to the army, and her tears
and entreaties took her beyond' the lines, and she got
down to the hospital in the Wilderness. She got the
number of the ward or cot he was in. She went down
that line of cots, and at last her eye fixed upon that
number. She rushed to that cot, and bent over and
kissed that armless man, and she said, " I never will give
you up. These hands will toil for you. I am able to
support you and care for you." That young man could
have spurned her offer, and turned her away and said,
"No, I will not carry out the engagement." He was a
free agent. But she came to him in his helpless condi-
tion, and now they are living a happy life. She has
been true to her word. She takes care of that man.

Ah, my friends, it is a poor illustration of what Jesus
Christ will do for every sinner in this hall to-night. We

174 MOODY S SERMONS.

are worse than armless. We are dead in trespasses and
sins. Christ came from the throne of heaven and re-
deemed us from the law. " He bore our sins for us in
his own body on the tree." " He was wounded for our
transgressions, bruised for our iniquity, and by His stripes
we are healed. " He took the penalty of the law into His
own bosom. He tasted death for every man. Christ
was the end of the law by giving up His own life. Sin-
ner, will you have Him as your Savior? Will you let
Him redeem you from the curse of the law to-night?
Will you to-night pass from death unto life? You can,
if you will have Him. "He that hath the Son hath
life, and he that hath not the Son hath not life." And
when you and I stand before God, the question will be,
" What did you do with my Son? I offered you eternal
life through Him. What did you do with Him?"

Jesus and the Woman Taken in Adultery. John, viii, 3-1 1.

GRACE.

My subject is that which we have just been singing
about, "Grace." It is one of those Bible words we hear
so often and know so little about. You hear a great
many people talking about their not being worthy to come
to Christ; they would like to come, but they are not
worthy, they are not good enough. That is a sign they
know nothing about grace at all. Grace means unmerited
mercy, undeserved favor. Just because man don't
deserve it, God deals in grace with him. And when we
see it in that light, we will get done trying to establish
our own righteousness and our own good deeds, and take
Christ as God would have us.

Now, there is not any part of the Bible in which you
will not find God shining out in grace; or, in other words,
He wants to deal with all men in grace. He doesn't de-
light in judgment. He delights in mercy. That is one
of his attributes. He is anxious to deal in mercy with
every man, woman and child on the face of the earth.
But the trouble is, men are running away from the God
of grace, they don't want grace, won't have it, won't
take it as a gift.

In proof of this, you will find, away back in Eden,
the first thing after the fall of man, God dealing in grace
with Adam. You find, as you read the account of his

177

178 Moody's sermons.

fall, of his transgression, that there is not any sign at all
of repentance. When God came to deal with Adam,
there is not any sign of Adam asking for pardon. If he
asked for pardon, it has not been put on record. There
is no confession; there is no contrition; there is no prayer
for mercy; and yet we find the God of all grace dealing
with Adam there in Eden in love, in grace. He had
mercy upon him. If He had dealt in judgment without
grace, He would have hurled him out of Eden, or He
would have let Eden be his resting-place. He would
have perished right there in Eden. But we find God
dealt in grace with Adam. He pitied him, and He had
mercy upon him.

You will find that, all through the Old Testament,
grace here and there shines out; but we don't see it in
its fullness until Christ came. He was the embodiment
of grace and truth.

In the first chapter of John's gospel and the fourteenth
verse it says, "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt
among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the
only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth
came by Jesus Christ."

Again, in the fifth chapter of Romans and the fifteenth
verse, we read, " But not as of the offense, so also is the
free gift." Emphasize that little word free. It is a free
gift. " For if through the offense of one many be dead,
much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace,
which is by one man, Jesus Christ hath abounded unto
many."

Now, grace came by Jesus Christ, and hath abounded
unto many. As we lost life in the first Adam, we get

GRACE. 179

life in the second Adam. We lost everything, you might
say, in the first Adam, but we get it all back, and more,
too, in the second Adam. He came full of grace to have
mercy on man and to save. We cannot get the grace of
God except through His Son. That is the channel that
the gifts of God flow through. If a man thinks he is go-
ing to get by Christ and going right to the Father, and
have God deal in mercy with him, he is deceiving him-
self. Christ is the anointed one, the sent one. God
sent Him to deal in grace with men; and if you want the
God of all grace to meet you and bless you, you must
meet Him at the foot of the cross; you must meet Him
in Christ.

When the nations around Egypt went down into
Egypt to get corn, the king of Egypt sent them to
Joseph. He put everything in Joseph's hands. So the
King of heaven has put everything in Christ's hands;
and if you want mercy, you must go to Christ, because
He delights in mercy; and there is not a man or woman
on the face of the earth who really wants mercy that can-
not find it in Him. He is the God of all grace; that is
what Peter says. Men talk about grace, but the fact is
we don't know much about grace. If I went to a bank
and had a pretty good reputation for having money, if I
was worth considerable, and I could get another man
that was worth a little more to indorse my note, I might
get, perhaps, five hundred dollars for a little while, but
I would have to give a note, and perhaps have to secure
that note, and it would read, " Thirty days after date,
or sixty days after date, I promise to pay." Then they
give what they call three days grace, and they make you
pay interest for those three days; and if you are short a

180 Moody's sermons.

dollar, they will sell everything you have to get that from
you. Men call that grace. They don't know anything
about grace at all. If they had grace, they would give
you, not only the principal, but the interest and all. That
is what grace is. I think the reason men know so little
about grace is that they are measuring God by their own
rule. Now, we love a man as long as he is worthy of
our love. When he is not, we cast him off. Not so with
the God of all grace. Nothing will give Him greater
pleasure than to deal in mercy, to deal in grace.

Paul is called the apostle of grace. If you look at
his fourteen epistles carefully, you will find that every
one of them winds up with a prayer for grace.

Now, I want to call your attention to a scene that oc-
curred in the life of Christ. See how grace just flowed
out. There was a. woman came to him who had a
daughter who was grievously tormented at home. Per-
haps some of you have children that are possessed of
bad spirits, possessed of a demon, children that are just
breaking your hearts, and bringing ruin upon your home
and bitterness into your life. Well, this woman had a
child that was grievously tormented, and she started off
to Christ. He was coming to the coast of Tyre and
Sidon, and she came out to that coast. She was not an
Israelite. He had come for the lost sheep of the house
of Israel. God sent him first to the Jews. But grace
would flow out. The apostles tried to keep it back,
but it would flow out. He came in the borders of that
country, and this woman had faith, and she came and
cried to the Lord to help her, and she kept crying. The
Lord knew all about her, but He wanted to teach those
Jews around Him a lesson. He wanted to teach them

GRACE. I8l

the lesson of grace. The most difficult thing Christ had
to do when He was down here was to teach those Jews
grace. The men that were around Him, even those
twelve apostles, could not understand about this grace.
They were all the time going around establishing their
own righteousness. " We are of the seed of Jacob; we
are the descendants of Moses and Abraham." They
thought they were better than the nations around them.
They called the nations around them Gentile dogs, but
they were the seed of Abraham. He was trying to teach
them grace. They could not understand it. This wom-
an comes to the coast of Tyre and Sidon and begins to
cry for help. The disciples tried to send her away. She
was terribly in earnest, and she kept praying right there
in the streets. She was hungering for something. I
hope some one has come up to this tabernacle to-day
hungering for something. You will get it if you are
hungering and thirsting for it. She was terribly in
earnest. She wanted the Lord to bless her. She put
herself right in the place of that child. At last one of
the twelve, perhaps it was Peter — he was generally the
spokesman of the twelve — says, "Lord send her away;
she is bothering us." Ah! Peter did not know the heart
of the Savior. He had a blessing in his heart for that
woman. But the woman kept on crying. At last he
thought he would try her, and he says, " It is not meet
to take the children's bread and cast it to the dogs."
Now, if she had been like some women in this city she
would have probably said, " What! you call me a dog, do
you? I won't take anything from you. I know lots of
women who are meaner than I am; and worse than I am.
There's a woman lives down on the same street I live,

182 Moody's sermons.

and she belongs to the seed of Abraham, and she is a
good deal meaner than I am." How mad she would have
got. But see what she did, "Yes, Lord; but the dog
eats of the crumbs that fall from his master's table." Ah,
it pleased the Master wonderfully. He did not send her
away. " O woman, great is thy faith! Be it unto thee
as thou wilt." That is a blank check for her to fill out.
The whole treasury of heaven was open to her, and she
could walk in and take what she wanted. She did not
come with any work. She did not come with any tears.
She just came for mercy. And that beautiful prayer!
Some people tell us they can't pray; but this is one of
the most beautiful prayers on record. "Lord" — she
called him Lord; he was divine; he was not mere man —
" Lord, help me." Three golden links bound her right
to the God of all grace. You tell me you can't pray!
Why, that little child there can make that prayer,
" Lord, help me." That is all she said, and that is all
she wanted. She wanted help. She had come for that,
and she got it. If you come to-day to meet the God of
all grace and want help, he is ready to help you. He
delights to help. He likes to give gifts to the sons of
men. He says, "It is more blessed to give than to re-
ceive." He has gifts, and He wants to give every one of
us some to-day, if we will receive them. He is full of
grace. It don't grieve Him to have us come too often.
It don't grieve Him to have us ask too great things. The
only way we can displease God is not to come often
enough; and when we do come not to ask for enough.
This woman came for a blessing, and she got it. She
went right home and found that child perfectly whole.
In the seventh chapter of Luke you will find another

GRACE. 183

case where grace seems to come out. A certain centu-
rion's servant was sick, and when the centurion heard of
Jesus, he sent the elders of the Jews to ask Him to come
and heal his servant. And the Jews came and said,
''Lord, there is a centurion whose servant is very ill, and
he wants to have you come and heal him; and we want
to have you come at once, because he is worthy." Now,
mark this. The Jews put it on the ground of his worthi-
ness. What had he done to make him worthy? Why,
he had built a synagogue. They thought Christ ought
to stop His work and turn aside at once, and go and heal
that man's servant, because he was worthy. They put
it on the ground of works, because he had built a syna-
gogue. O you know, I believe that is the mischief with
many of our churches. I believe that is the trouble with
a good many people. They think God is under obliga-
tions to them. They think God owes them something.
They think because they have built a synagogue, or helped
build some church, or endowed some college, that God
ought to deal in grace with them, and ought to have
mercy upon them. Now, it is "To him that worketh
not, but believeth." Now, Christ starts to go to that
centurion's house as if He was going to deal with him in
that way, as if He was going to put it on the ground of
works. But before He gets to his house, the man sent
friends to Him, saying, "Lord, don't trouble yourself;
I am not worthy that you should come into my house;
neither thought I myself worthy to ask you; so I sent
these Jews." He thought other people better than him-
self. And I tell you when a man gets there, he gets in
a position where God can deal in grace with him; he is
pretty near the kingdom of heaven. But the trouble

1 84 Moody's sermons.

with us Americans is, we think we are a little better than
other people. We just reverse God's order, and we
think that other people are a little lower down, and a
little worse than we are. But this centurion thought he
was not worthy to come and ask Christ to heal his ser-
vant. He sent men to Him saying, ''Now, you speak
the word, and it will be done." That pleased Christ.
He turned around and said to those Jews, ' ' I have not
found so great faith, no, not in Israel." Here was a cen-
turion. He did not belong to the tribe of Abraham; but
among the Jews He had not found a man that had such
faith. The Lord said the word, and the servant was
healed right then and there. He dealt in grace with him.
So when you and I are in such a position that God can
deal in grace with us, that very moment God deals in
grace with us. Well, when is it? When we are just
nothing, and are willing to let God have mercy upon us,
then he will have mercy, not before.

Now, if you will turn to Ephesians you will find that
he deals in grace without works. You hear people talk
about trying to do better. They think they can do some-
thing that will commend them to God, and that God will
have mercy upon them. Instead of giving up all works
and letting God save them in His own way, they are try-
ing to work their way to God, and that is the reason that
they do not come. I believe to-day that works is one of
the great obstacles in the way. Men are trying to put
their good works in the place of a Savior. In the second
chapter of Ephesians, second verse, we read, • ' That in
the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of
His grace in His kindness toward us through Jesus Christ.
For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not

GRACE. 185

of yourselves; it is the gift of God." Through grace are
you saved. Now, mark the words. There is one lady
that is not listening. She has gone to sleep. I wish,
friends, if you see any one asleep you would just hunch
them with your elbow and wake them. You may save a
soul in that way. " For by grace are ye saved through
faith, and that not by yourselves! It is the gift of God;
not of works; lest any man should boast."

There will be one thing we will miss when we get to
heaven, and that is boasting. We hear enough of that
down here. I am sure I don't want to hear any more.
You cannot go into any of these cities hardly but what
you find a lot of self-made men boasting of what they
have done, started poor and got rich, and have done this
and this. It is, I I — boasting. I am sure there would
be a good deal of boasting in heaven, if men could get
there by their works. But you cannot get there in that
way. If you get there, you have to get there by the
sovereign grace of God. Salvation is a gift. You must
take it as a gift. If a man could get to heaven by works,
he would carry boasting into heaven with him. Suppose
a man could work his way up to heaven, what is he go-
ing to do when he gets there? He could not join the
chorus around the throne singing the song of redemption.
He would have to have a little harp and get off in a cor-
ner by himself.

Then, in the eleventh chapter of Romans and sixth
verse, Paul says, " And if by grace, then it is no more of
works; otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be
of works, then is it no more grace." He is there bring-
ing out the point. He says, if men are saved by works,
there is no grace about it at all.

1 86 Moody's sermons.

Paul says, in the fourth chapter of Romans and fifth
verse, "It is to him that worketh not, but believeth."
We get salvation by faith and not by works. Not but
that salvation is worth working for. It is worth climb-
ing mountains, crossing rivers, swimming streams, cross-
ing deserts and lakes, and going round the world on our
hands and knees for. It is worth it, no doubt about it,
but you can't get it in that way, you can't get it by works.
"It is to him that worketh not, but believeth." If I em-
ployed a man to work for me all day, and I gave him two
dollars for the day's work, and he goes home, and his
wife says to him, ' ' John, where did you get that two dol-
lars? " and he said, "I worked and earned it," there
would be no grace about it at all. But suppose he is
sick and could not work, or suppose I did not have any
work for him, and he was in distress, and I gave him two
dollars. He goes home, and his wife says, "John, where
did you get that money?" and he says, " Why, it is a
gift; Mr. Moody gave it to me."

Now, if you ever get salvation, you have to take it as
a gift. You cannot buy it, and you cannot get it by
your good works.

Suppose I should say to this audience if anybody wants
this Bible, he can have it, and a man steps up; I reach out
the Bible; he takes it, puts it under his arm and starts off
home. He gets home, and his wife says, ' ' John, where
did you get that Bible?" And he says, " Why, Mr.
Moody gave it to me." That would be a gift. But sup-
pose I should say, I will give that Bible to any one that
wants it, and a man comes up and says, "Mr. Moody,
I don't just like your terms. I don't like to be under
obligations to you," and that is about the way with sin-

GRACE. 187

ners; they do not like to be under obligations to God.
So this man says, " I would like to take it, but not on
your terms. I will give you twenty-five cents for the
Bible." I know it is worth a good deal more than that;
but suppose I take the twenty-five cents, and the man
goes home with the Bible under his arm, and his wife
says, "John, where did you get that Bible?" He says,
" I bought it." It is no gift at all. He bought it.

Now, don't you see that it is a gift? All through the
Bible it is called a gift. If it is a gift, it must be without
works; it must be without money. It would be no gift
at all if you paid for it, if you paid a farthing. It is a
gift from God. But you can spurn the gift. You can
trample it under your feet. You can .iy, " I will not
have grace." Then you must have judgment. If any
man will not have grace, he must have judgment. If
a man will not have mercy, he must have punishment.
Is not that the teaching of the Scriptures? God says,
" I delight in mercy; I want to give you the gift of eter-
nal life." " The wages of sin is death." Man has got
to take his wages, whether he wants to or not. "The
wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life."

Now, the question comes, "To whom does he offer
this gift? To the righteous? He offers it to the world.
He offers it to sinners; and if a man can prove that he is
a sinner, I can prove he has got a Savior. If man can
prove he was born into this world, I can prove that God
has provided a Savior for him. " God gave Him up,"
says Paul, "freely for us all." I like these texts that
have these sweeping assertions that take us all in. " God
gave him up for us all." Christ did not die for Paul
any more than He did for the rest of us. He tasted

1 88 • Moody's sermons.

death for us all. " That is what I believe," says a man
down there, "and every man will be saved." Yes,
every man that will lay hold of the cross will be saved.
4 'If ye die in your sins, where I am ye cannot come.'
If a man goes on sinning, violating the law of God,
trampling it under his feet, and will not take the yoke
of God upon him down here, do you think he is going
into the kingdom of God? Do you think he will have
any taste for heaven?

In the second chapter of Titus, eleventh and twelfth
verses, Paul says, "For the grace of God that bringeth
salvation hath appeared to all men. " I can imagine a
man says, " Do you think that is really true? " " Yes."
"What! Does that mean drunkards?" "Yes, every
drunkard in this city." "What! Do you mean all
these harlots that are walking the streets to-night? "
"Every harlot the grace of God hath appeared, bringing
salvation to every man." " What! Do you mean gam-
blers? " ' ' Yes, every gambler. " ' ' And these murderers
down here in prison, and some that haven't been caught?"
"Yes; every murderer. The grace of God hath ap-
peared, bringing salvation to all men." If men are lost,
it is because they spurn God's gift. They spurned His
offer of mercy. It is not that God don't offer it. It is
as free as the air we breathe.

I remember preaching upon the grace of God once in
Chicago, to a fashionable congregation, and I was just
hungering for some souls. I was anxious that the grace
of God might find some one there, and while I was
preaching I was looking around to see if I could see any
one that was anxious to be saved. At the close of the
meeting I said, " If there is any one here that wants to

GRACE. 189

be saved, I will be glad to stay and talk with him." It
was one of the coldest nights of the winter, and they all
got up and went out, and my heart sank within me. I
looked all around and did not see any one wait. I got
my overcoat, and was the last one to leave, as I supposed;
but as I got to the door, I saw a man behind the furnace.
He was crying as if his heart would break. I sat down
by his side and I said, ' ' What is the trouble? " He said,
"Well, you said something to-night that broke my
heart." "What is it?" "You said that the grace of
God was for the likes of me." I said, "That is good; I
am glad it has reached you." He thought he could not
be saved. But it was for the like of him. I talked
with him, and found out what his trouble was. He was
just one of those poor unfortunate men that liquor had
got the mastery of, and, although it was one of the cold-
est nights, he had no coat on. He drank that up. He
said that within the past six months he had drank up
twenty thousand dollars. "And now," said he, "my
wife has left me, and my children, and my own father
and mother have cast me off, and I expected to die
here in the gutter one of these nights. I expected this
was my last night." He said, " I didn't come in to hear
you; I came in to get warm, but my heart is broken. Do
you think the grace of God can save me, a poor, misera-
ble, vile wretch like me?" I said, " Yes."

It was refreshing to preach the gospel of the Son of
God to that poor man. I prayed with him, and after I
prayed with him, he didn't ask me for any money, but I
took him to a place where he was provided for that
night, and the next morning I had a friend go to the
pawnbroker's to get his coat; got his coat upon him, and

190 Moody's sermons.

in a little while he came out a decided Christian; and
when Mr. Sankey and myself went to Europe, We did not
leave a brighter light in all the western states than that
young man. The grace of God found him. The grace
of God saved him, and the grace of God has kept him.

That is what the grace of God is for. There is not a
man, woman or child in this city so far gone but the
grace of God can save him. What we want is, as Chris-
tians, to be up and publishing the tidings, proclaiming
the glorious gospel of Christ. It is a gospel of glad tid-
ings. My friends, make haste. Take the torch of sal-
vation and carry it down into the dark lanes, and dark
alleys, and dark homes, and light them up with the glo-
rious gospel of the Son of God. Jesus is mighty to save.
His name shall be called Jesus, for He shall save His peo-
ple from their sins. He is a mighty Savior, but the
world don't know it. The world has been deceived by
the devil; has been blinded by the god of this world.
What we want is to tell them that Christ is able to save,
and that He is ready to save.

There is a story told of William Dorset, that York-
shire farmer. He was preaching one night in London,
and he made the remark that there was not a man in all
London so far gone but that the grace of God could save
him. That is a very strong assertion, for there are some
pretty hard cases in London, a city of four million inhab-
itants. You go into the east of London and see that
awful pool of iniquity; the stream of death and misery
flows right on. But he made that statement, that there
was not a man or woman in all London so far gone but
that the grace of God could save them. It fastened in a
young lady's mind, She went home that night, and the

GRACE. 191

next morning she went to see the Yorkshire farmer. She
said, " I heard you preach last night, and I heard you say
that there was not a man so far gone in all London, but
that the grace of God could save him." She said, "Did
you really mean it?" "Why?" he said, "certainly I
meant it." "And do you think that there is not a man in
all London but that can be saved if he will be? " " Why,
certainly," said Mr. Dorset, "not a man." " Well," she
said, " I am a missionary, and I work down in the East
End of London, and I have found a man there who says
that there is no hope for him. He is dying, and I can't
make him believe that there is any hope for him. I wish
you would go and see him." The man of God said he
would be glad to go. She took him down one of those
narrow streets until they came to an old filthy building.
She said, "I think, perhaps, you can manage him better
alone." It was a five-story building. He went up
stairs to the upper story, and found a young man lying
there upon some straw; there was no bed. Ah, the way
of the transgressor is hard! He had got clear down into
great poverty and want, and there he was sick and dying.
Mr. Dorset bent over him, whispered into his ear, and
called him friend. The young man looked up at him
astonished. " You are mistaken, sir, in the person. You
have got in the wrong place." "How is that?" asked
Mr. Dorset. " Well, sir, I have no friend; I am friend-
less." He said, " You have a friend." Then he told him
of the sinner's friend. He told him how Christ loved
him. The young man shook his head, " Christ
don't love me." " Why not?" " I have sinned against
Him all my life." " I don't care if you have. He loves
you still, and He wants to save you." And he preached

192 MOODY S SERMONS.

Christ to him there. He told him of the glorious grace
of God. He told him that God could save him, and he
read to him out of the Bible. The light of the gospel
began to dawn upon that darkened mind, and the first
sign of a new life was, his heart went out toward those
whom he had injured, and he said, ' ' If I could only know
that my father would forgive me, I could die in this
garret happy." He asked him where his father lived.
He said, " In the West End of London." Mr. Dorset
said, " I will go up and see him, and will ask him if he
will not forgive you." The young man shook his head.
""I don't want you to do that. Why, sir, my father had
disowned me. He has disinherited me. My father has
had my name taken off the family record. He does not
own me any more as his boy. I am as dead, sir, to him
If you go and talk to him about me, he will get angry
and order you out of the house, and you have been so
kind to me I don't want your feelings hurt." Mr.
Dorset went up to the West End of London to a most
beautiful place and rang the bell. A servant dressed in
livery came to the door. Mr. Dorset inquired if his mas-
ter was in, and was told that he was. He was taken
into the drawing-room, and while he was waiting there
for the man of the house to come down, he looked around
him. There was not a thing that heart could desire that
had not been laid out on that beautiful home. By-and-
by the man came into the room. Mr. Dorset got up and
went across the room to shake hands with him. He said,
" You have a son, sir, by the name of Joseph, have you
not? The father's hand fell by his side. His countenance
changed. Mr. Dorset saw that he had made him very
angry. He said in a great rage, " No, sir. And if you

GRACE. 193

have come here to talk to me about that worthless vaga-
bond, I want you to leave my house. I don't allow any
one to mention his name in my presence. He has been
dead to me for years, and if you have been to him you
have been deceived. He cannot be relied upon." He
turned on his heel to go out of the room, to leave him.
Mr. Dorset said, "Well, he is your boy yet. He won't
be long." The father turned again. "Is my Joseph
sick?" "Yes, your boy is at the point of death, sir.
He is dying. I have not come here to ask you to take
him home, or to ask you to give him anything, sir; I will
see that he has a decent burial. All I want is to have
you tell me that you forgive him, and let him die in
peace." The great heart of the father was broken, and
he said, " Forgive him? O, I would have forgiven him
long ago if I had known he wanted it. Forgive him!
Certainly. Can you take me to him?" The man of God
said he would take him to him, and they got into a car-
riage and were soon on their way; and when the father
reached the garret he could hardly recognize his boy, all
mangled and bruised by the fall of sin. The first thing
the boy said to his father was, "Father, can you for-
give me? Will you forgive me? " " O Joseph, I would
have forgiven you long ago if I had known you wanted
it." He met him in grace right there. The father said,
" Let my servant take you in the Carriage, and take you
home. I cannot let you die in this fearful place." "No,
father, I am not well enough to be moved. I shall die
soon, but I can die happy now that I know you have for-
given me; for I believe that God, for Christ's sake, has
forgiven me." And in a little while, with his head on
the bosom of his father, Joseph breathed his last, and
passed back to his God.

194 MOODY S SERMONS.

Yes, my friends, that father was willing to forgive him
when he knew that the boy wanted grace. Now, God
knows all your hearts, and if you want grace to-day, the
God of all grace will meet you. He will meet you in
mercy. He will meet you in pity. He will bless you
to-day. He wants to bless you. Sin ruins, sin casts
down, but the grace of God lifts up. O, may the grace
of God lift you up to-day out of the pit, and place your
feet on the Rock of Ages!

Daniel. Daniel, x.

WHY HALT YE ?

You will find my text in the eighteenth chapter of first
Kings, verse twenty-one, ''And Elijah came unto all the
people and said, How long halt ye between two opinions?
If the Lord be God, follow Him; but if Baal, then fol-
low him. And the people answered him not a word."
He asked them a question that they were not willing to
answer. I venture to say if I should put that question
to each one of you here to-night, a good many, if not
half, of this congregation would refuse to answer. I heard
of a gentleman here last night, who said he would like to
ask me some questions. If that man is here to-night, I
would like to ask him a question. " How long halt ye
between two opinions? If the Lord be God, follow him;
if Baal, follow him." It is a fair, square, practical
thing, isn't it? If these things are true that are written
here in this book, the quicker we find them out and be-
lieve them, the better. It is certain we cannot serve God
and Baal. That is out of the question. Another thing-
is certain, and that is we serve the one or the other. No
man stands on neutral ground in this matter. " He that
is not for me," says Christ, "is against me." A great
many men take the ground that they are not on either
side. This is out of the question. Some take the
ground that they are on both sides. That is out of the

197

I9o MOODY S SERMONS.

question. If there is any one character above another
that we detest — now, I am not talking about sinners; we
love sinners — if there is any one character that we detest
above another, it is the man who tries to be on both sides,
who agrees exactly with the last man he meets. If you
make a statement, " Yes, those are my views exactly; I
agree with you, sir." A man comes along with just the
opposite view. " Those are my views, exactly; yes."

There is not a person in this house to-night but has a
perfect dread of such people. You detest a character of
that kind. During our war there were, in the border
states, some of those people. They kept two flags.
When the southern army came along, they would run out
the confederate flag; then when the northern army
came along, and they thought they were going to be in
town some time, they would pull in the southern flag
and run out the union flag, the star spangled banner.
Do you know that those people suffered more than any
other people? The southern army would strip them of
everything they had, and if they hid anything from the
southern army and accumulated anything, when the
union army came along, it would strip them of every-
thing. Both armies detested them. We like to have
men one thing or the other. You cannot serve God and
mammon. You cannot have two masters in this matter.
" He that is not for Me is against Me."

Now, the question is to-night, whose side are you on?
I read of a king in ancient time who married a heathen
wife. He wanted to please his wife, and so he put up
two altars. One altar was to a heathen god, and on the
other he tried to serve Jehovah. Do you think he did
it? There is not a child in this audience but that knows
very well he could not do it.

WHY HALT YE ? 1 99

Now, I would like to press the question home upon
you, who is your God to-night? If I understand it cor-
rectly, the God of our soul is the one that we think the
most of. Is it the god of pleasure? Is it the god of
fashion? Is it the god of the world? Or is it the God
of the Bible, the God of Elijah? Now, it is Baal or
Jehovah. Which is it? I know men will try and dodge
the question and say it is not either. But that is impos-
sible. Christ has settled that question forever. You
cannot serve God and mammon.

Mark Antony, the great Roman general, yoked up two
lions and used to drive them through the streets of
Rome. But there are two lions we read of in this book
that cannot be yoked together. They never go together.
The lion of the tribe of Judah and the lion of hell will
never be yoked together. You cannot serve the two.
You cannot put them together. It is one or the other,
and it is for you to settle which. God gives us that
privilege. That is just where free agency comes in.
You can have Baal, or you can have the God of the Bible.
I believe to-night there is not, perhaps, one in this audi-
ence but that means to decide sometime; but it is so
hard to get them to the point of decision. It is so hard
to get them across that. line. They halt one day too
long.

When there is a great question before us, we have
really no peace until the question is settled. If we are
unsettled on any very important subject, there is no real
rest to our minds. There cannot be. Here is the great
question of questions. I will venture to say that there is
not any one in this church who will not admit that. We
know very well that our life is too short. It is but a

200 MOODY S SERMONS.

vapor; it is soon gone. If these things are true, they are
eternally true. They not only concern us in time, but
they concern us in eternity. In a few days or months or
years, you and I will be gone. Life is ebbing fast away.
The sands of time are running out. If the God of Elijah
is true, then we certainly ought to know it, and follow
him.

Now, the men that have left the deepest footprints
upon the shores of time have been men of decision.
Leave out the religious question. If they have been
great rulers, they have been men of decision. Do you
know why so many of our generals failed in the late war?
They could not decide. They lacked decision of charac-
ter, and at the very time they ought to have decided and
pushed on to victory, they deferred and lost the victory.

Some one asked Alexander how he conquered the
world, and he said he conquered it by not delaying. If
this question is going to be conquered, we cannot delay.
Many a man has come up to the line, and he has halted,
and wavered and delayed it until one day too late. He
did not decide.

You have a good deal more admiration for a man of
decision than for a man that is vacillating. That is what
we like about Daniel so much. What makes his charac-
ter so beautiful? It shines out upon the page of history
to-night brighter than it did when he lived. He has been
gone twenty-five hundred years, and yet his fragrance is
throughout the whole world. When he went down to
Babylon, before he was twenty years old, he purposed in
his heart whom he would serve. The Chaldeans soon
found out whose side he was on. He was a man of de-
cision. It was that that made him so mighty and such a

WHY HALT YE? 201

wonderful man. Many a young man comes up to this
city from a country home, who has a vacillating charac-
ter, and he has not decision enough to do the right
thing, to act up to his conscience. He is convinced in his
mind he ought to do it, but he vacillates, and he halts,
and he is influenced by the world around him, and he
does not decide to do the right thing at the right time.
Decision of character is what made Joseph so wonderful.
It was that very thing that made Paul such a mighty man.
When God called him, he decided. He did not confer
with flesh and blood. He did not stop to reason. God
called him. That was enough. He decided. He leaped
into the race-course and leaped over the highway, right
on up to glory, never stopped. Cold churches and false
brethren, perils in the wilderness, chains, persecutions,
stripes never stopped him. He was a man of decision.
O, I would to God we had a thousand such men in this
country to-day! That is what we want.

Look at that vacillating Balaam. In profession he
would be a servant of the most high God; but in prac-
tice he bowed down to Baal, because he wanted the ap-
plause of the world. Look at Agrippa, almost per-
suaded; but he lacked moral courage to be altogether
persuaded, such as Paul. Felix got so far as to tremble;'
but he said, "Go thy way for this time." He was not
willing to decide then. And how many men since Felix
have said, "Go thy way for this time; I will decide this
question some other time."

Three years and a half before this thing occurred on
Mount Carmel, Ahab, one day, was startled by a strange-
appearing man. I don't know how he got by the guard
at the door, into the presence of Ahab, but all at once

202 MOODY S SERMONS.

Elijah stood there right before him, and the first thing he
said was, "As the Lord liveth, before whom I stand,
there shall be neither dew nor rain until it comes by my
word," and then fled. I suppose Ahab thought he was
some lunatic. If they had insane asylums in those days,
he would probably have thought he had just come out of
some asylum. He was strangely dressed. His garment
was made of the skin of a camel.- He had a leathern
girdle around his loins. He might have had a staff in
his hand. And away the man went. I will venture to
say Ahab didn't believe a word he said; but the next
morning there was no dew. They didn't have any beau-
tiful fogs coming up, such as you and I see down in the
valley of the Connecticut river valley, moistening every-
thing. There was no fog, and there was no rain. They
looked. There was not a cloud as large as a man's hand
to be seen for months. By-and-by the springs dried up,
and the little brooks that came rippling down the moun-
tain side were all dry. At last there was a wail heard
in the land. A famine was coming on. Now, this king
inquired, "Where is this man that came into my pres-
ence, and said there would be neither dew nor rain? We
must find that man. Why, he has the keys of heaven."
Search is made from one end of the land to the other,
and they can't find him. Ahab then goes to the nations
all around, and takes an oath from them that they have
not this man hid away. A whole year passed, and not
a drop of dew; everything is as dry as Gideon's fleece.
The second 3 ear comes, and no rain. The people be-
gin to move off. Many of them move off into other
lands, and there is great suffering from one end of the
country to the other.

WHY HALT YE ? 203

The third year comes, and there is neither dew nor
rain. A half-year more passes, and at last Ahab says to
Obadiah, "We must go and find something to keep our
beasts alive; they are dying." It had reached the palace
now. The king began to suffer. And he says to Oba-
diah, " You go that way, and I will go this, and we will
see if we can't find grass for our beasts." They started.
I don't know how far Obadiah had got from the palace,
not a great ways, when whom should he meet but Elijah.
The voice of God had come to Elijah up there in the
other country, and told him to go and meet Ahab. What
must have been that prophet's feelings as he passed over
the line, and passed into his own native country? Deso-
lation was on all sides. There were the bones of animals
bleaching on the mountain side; the streams all dried up;
the earth all dried and cracked open. As he passed
through every little village, he could see funeral proces-
sions bearing away their dead. Many had died while he
had been gone. There was ruin and desolation from one
end of the land to the other. He passed through the
land a stranger. They did not know that he was the
man that held the keys, the man they had been looking
for so long. He comes up, and what must have been
Obadiah's feelings when he saw him? He sees Elijah
turn around the corner, and he comes down the high-
way, and he cries out, " My Lord Elijah, art thou here?
Is it possible you have come? Art thou here? " He says,
M'I am. Go and tell your master that I am here." Then
he says, "What have I done that you want to bring
ruin upon me? Have you not heard while you have been
gone how I have taken care of the Lord's prophets; how
I have hid them by fifties in caves to keep them so

204 MOODY S SERMONS.

Jezebel would not murder them?" "Yes, I heard all
about it," says Elijah. " Go and tell the king I am
here." Obadiah says, " If I go and tell the king thou
art here, as soon as I am gone from thee the spirit of the
Lord shall carry thee whither I know not; and so when I
come and tell Ahab, and he cannot find thee, he shall
slay me." Elijah says, "As the Lord liveth, before
whom I stand, I will stand before Ahab to-day." It is
not very often subjects send for a king, you know. But
Obadiah went, and he says to Ahab, "We have found
Elijah." " What do you say? The prophet, that Tish-
bite? Have you found him?" "Yes." " Where is he?"
" He is down the road." " Why didn't you bring him? "
"Why, he wouldn't come. He told me to come and
bring you." "Well, I will go and see him; I would like
to see him." And he comes towards Elijah full of rage,
nothing but malice in his heart, and he walks up to the
prophet, " Art thou the man that has been troubling
Israel? " " No," says he, " I am not; you are the man."
Ahab was not used to having people talk in that way to
him. " I am not the man; you are the man; it is you and
your house; it is you and your iniquity; it is you and
your sin; you have brought this ruin upon the country; I
warned you. Now," says he, " let us have this thing
tested, and let us find out who is the God of Israel. You
summon Israel up on to Mount Carmel, and we will go
up there, and we will have the thing tested; we will find
out who is the true God." And Ahab obeys him as if
Elijah was king. Israel is summoned upon Mount Car-
mel. What must have been the feelings of Ahab's mes-
sengers as they went from village to village, from town
to town, to tell the people to come up on Mount Car-

WHY HALT YE ? 205

mel? When men's pockets are touched, they are always
excited, and now it is going to touch their pockets. If
they can get rain, they will not lose their land, and they
can live. The whole country is excited and stirred.
Talk about people not being excited! I will venture to
say that country was as much excited as this country has
ever been. Excitements are not bad sometimes. I
have known men to get terribly excited if corn went up
five cents, or cotton ten cents; but if people would get
worked up about their soul's salvation, " O, that is false
excitement. That is wild-fire. You must be careful,
now." I will venture to say that country was stirred
from end to end when they heard Elijah had got back.

And on the day appointed, you can see the crowd mov-
ing up toward Mount Carmel. They come from every
town and village. The chief men of the nation are all
there. Their leading men, their magistrates, and their
elders move up toward Mount Carmel, and at last you
can see those eight hundred and fifty prophets, four hun-
dred prophets of the grove, and four hundred and fifty
prophets of Baal. They move in solid column up that
mountain side with their long, flowing robes. It must
have made a great impression on the people; eight hun-
dred and fifty of them moving up toward Mount Car-
mel. Not only that, but with that company of priests
comes Ahab with his escort and his chariots. The influ-
ence of the whole royal family was on the side of Baal.
The whole nation, to the outward eye, had gone over to
the service of Baal. They had backslidden and left the
God of the Bible. They had left the God of Israel.
They had left the God of their fathers.

That is just what this nation is doing now. Many are

206 Moody's sermons.

going over to Baal. Many are now beginning to tear
that book to pieces, and they are doubting whether God
is true or not. They are in the balances, halting and
wavering between two opinions. At last you can hear
the people wondering if Elijah would be there. Where
is he? They don't care so much about these prophets of
Baal. They had seen them for these three years and a
half. They had got quite well acquainted with them.
But where is the prophet that had been holding the keys
so long, and been keeping back the rain and the dew;
this man that had such mighty power with God? Where
is he? At last Elijah makes his appearance alone. He
has no Ahab. He has no royal court around him. He
wears no flowing robe. He has on the same old coat
make of camel's skin; a leather girdle around his loins,
and his staff in his hand. He moves up that mountain
like a giant. Every eye is upon him. Talk about sen-
sation! I venture to say there was a sensation when
Elijah appeared. There was not any man asleep then.
There was not a man asleep on Mount Carmel when he
appeared. They were looking right at him. He came
to the people, and he said, " How long halt ye between
two opinions? If the Lord be God, follow Him; but if
Baal, then follow him." And the people answered him
not a word. "Now," says he, " let us have the thing
decided to-day. Let the prophets of Baal build an altar
right here, and then let them put a sacrifice on that altar,
and let them call upon their god, or gods, and if their
god answers by fire and consumes the sacrifice, then that
settles the question. If their god doesn't, and my God
does, let Him be the God. The god that answers
prayer. In other words, let Him be God. The God

WHY HALT YE ? 207

that answers by fire, let Him be God." And the people
said, "That is well said. That is very well put. You
could not do any better than that." And there were the
priests. I don't think they thought it was going to be
put in that way, or else you would not have caught them
there. But the people said, "It is well said." They
built an altar, slew an animal, and put it on the altar;
and about nine o'clock in the morning they began to cry
to Baal to come and consume the sacrifice. And if the
Lord had not withheld Satan, I don't know but they
would have got a spark out of hell to kindle a fire and
burn it up. But the Lord did withhold Satan. They
did not have that power. And they cried, " O Baal!
O Baal! " and they cried for three hours. You could
hear their cry, probably, clear off to the sea. It was a
very earnest meeting. People say it does not make any
difference what a man believes, if he is only sincere.
They say you can believe in Baal as well as the God of
the Bible, if you are only in earnest. I never read of
more sincere men in my life than those eight hundred
and fifty men. They got so sincere that before noon
they jumped on the altar and took knives and cut them-
selves until the blood just covered them from head to
foot, and they cried at the top of their voices. About
noon Elijah says, " Cry louder! Your god must be on a
journey somewhere, or he has gone to sleep! Cry
louder!" Elijah might have said, "If your god an-
swers prayer, why didn't you call for rain while I was
gone? If your god now will come and give you fire; I
should have thought you would have called for water
while I have been away. If your god answers prayer,
why didn't you cry for rain? Why didn't you call for

208 Moody's sermons.

Baal to help you?" They prayed on till three o'clock in
the afternoon, six long hours. I will venture to say they
got so hoarse they could hardly speak to be heard. They
holloaed and yelled and cried to Baal, and no answer
came.

At three o'clock, the time of the evening sacrifice,
Elijah says, "Now, I will build my altar. " He would
have nothing to do with Baal's altar. We just w7ant to
let Baal's altar alone. Keep away from it! He built an
altar of his own. There is separation for you, on Mount
Carmel. Elijah took stones and built his altar. He took
twelve stones to represent the twelve tribes. He put on
the wood, and got everything ready. He slew the beast
and put it on the altar.

Now, he is not going to have those men say that he
had some fire concealed there. Says he, "Go and bring
me four barrels of water." He dug a trench all around
that altar. Says he, "Pour the water on." They did
that. " Bring on four barrels more," and they put on
eight barrels. It ran all around the trench. " Bring on
four more," and they put on twelve barrels of water,
until the trench was full. Everything was all dripping
with water. There is his dripping sacrifice.

About three o'clock in the afternoon, the time of the
evening service, Elijah drew near to the altar. Every eye
is on him. There stand the elders of Israel. They are
looking at him. Great things are at stake this afternoon.
And now he does not call upon Baal, but he begins his
prayer, "Lord God of Abraham, Isaac and of Israel,
let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel, and
that I am thy servant, and that I have done all these
things at thy word. Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that

WHY HALT YE ? 209

this people may know that thou art the Lord God, and
that thou hast turned their hearts back again." He did
not get any further than that; just commenced his prayer;
had not prayed a minute, when lo! Look yonder! See!
Fire coming down; it leaps on the altar, it burns up the
sacrifice, it burns up the wood, burns up the stones,
burns up the dust, licks up the water, and the people fall
on their faces and cry, "The Lord, He is God. The
God that answers prayer, He is God." My friends, Baal
never answered a prayer yet. You that are serving Baal
never got one answer to prayer, The God of your
mother, the God of that Bible, He answers prayer. Then
Elijah prayed again, and he prayed that there might be
rain; and he sent his servant to see if there was any sign
of rain. And the servant came back and said, "There
is no sign." He bowed his head on Carmel and prayed
again, and sent his servant, and he came back and said,
' ' There is no sign." He sent him seven times. When
he came back the seventh time, he said he saw a little
cloud about as big as a man's hand coming out of the sea.
And Elijah said, " Ahab, make haste and get home. You
will get wet if you don't. There is rain coming." He
had got the heavens opened. What brought that cloud
out of the sea? What brought the rain down? Elijah's
prayer. Elijah was a man of like passions with you and me.
My friends, what is a God good for that don't answer your
prayer? If you have a God that don't hear your cry when
you have a son that has gone astray, what is that God
good for? Baal don't answer prayer. Why not turn
back to the God of Elijah?

But I can imagine some of you say, "If I had lived
in the days of Elijah, and had witnessed that scene, I

2IO - . MOODY S SERMONS.

would have believed." Well, seven or eight hundred
years after that, on another mountain, not far from Mount
Carmel, a scene took place a good deal more wonderful
than that which occurred on Mount Carmel. You and I
live this side of Calvary. Those men did not have the
light we have. I tell you the scene that took place at
Mount Calvary is a thousand times more wonderful than
the scene that took place at Mount Carmel. Look at
the Son of God, going up that mountain bearing His
own cross; nailed to that cross to put away your sins
and mine. When He perished on that cross His human-
ity died. This earth shook. There was a terrible
earthquake, and the rocks were rent, and the very dead
came up out of their graves, and went back to Jerusalem
and met their friends. Jerusalem was filled with men
that came up out of their graves with Him as trophies
of His resurrection, as witnesses of the victory that He
had won. Yes, not only the resurrection, but our Lord
and Master has gone up on high, He has led captivity
captive, He is at the right hand of God to-night, and He
hears prayer. What more proof do we want? O, let
this question be decided to-night. Let the God of your
mother and the God of your father be your God. Let
the God of Elijah be your God. Let us decide that we
will follow Him, and that we will not follow Baal. Let
the decision be rendered right here to-night. Look at
that poor, vacillating Pilate that we were reading about
to-night. He was convinced in judgment that Christ
was true. His own treacherous heart told him that Jesus
Christ was true. His own conscience told him that
Christ was true, but he lacked moral courage to take his
stand and decide for Jesus Christ. He perished for the

WHY HALT YE i 211

want of decision. I believe hundreds and thousands are
going down to eternal death just for the want of decision.
They lack moral courage to decide this question. My
friends, let it be decided right here to-night. Let it be
decided now. Let us say, " To-night, and this hour I
will settle this question. If the God of Elijah is ready
and willing to receive me, I will come to him." He is,
my friends. He has forever settled that question by giv-
ing Christ to die for us. Christ never would have come
into this world and perished on the cross, if He had not
been willing to save perishing sinners. And now what
you want is to let Him save you. Let Him save you here
to-night. ' ' Him that cometh unto me, " He says, ' ' I will
in no wise cast out." He will not cast you out; but He
will receive you this very night if you will come.

Now, let me say, if that Bible is not true, the quicker
you and I find it out the better. If there is no God to
condemn sin, let us find it out. If there is no God to lift
us up or cast us down, let us find it out. Let us decide
this question one way or the other, God or Baal. Let us
not vacillate between two opinions. If Christianity is a
myth and a farce, as some people tell us, let us take our
Bibles and burn them. I tell you it is a farce to go on
spending money for churches if this Bible is not true.
Look at the money spent in building this church. Look
at the money spent in publishing the Bible and sending
it to the nations of the earth. If it is not true, let us
come out like men and fight it. I have a great deal more
respect for those atheists who come out and fight the
Bible and churches, than I have for those people who
pretend to be on both sides, who pretend to be friends
of Christianity, and are all the time stabbing it in the

212 Moody's sermons.

dark. Let us be one thing or the other. I am in hopes
of living to see the day that we are going to have Christ-
ians and infidels out and out. Let the line be drawn.
He that is for God, let him take his stand. He that is
against God, let him take his stand. Let us know who
they are. Let us have the line drawn. Let us not pro-
fess to be what we are not. If the Bible is not true, let
us take it into the street and make a bonfire and burn it.
If Christianity is not true, if it is a myth and a farce, Jet
us bury it, and get upon the tomb and say, ' ' There is no
Christianity; there is no heaven; there is no hell; there
is no hereafter; it is all a fiction; it is all a delusion." If
it is so, let us take our stand, and let us build a monu-
ment to Voltaire and Paine. Let us honor those men
that have been fighting that book, if it is a lie. But, if
it is true, let us take our stand by it. Let us come out
like men and decide this question. Let us decide it at
once. You can decide it to-night if you will; and the
quicker it is decided the better. You know if Satan can
get you to put this thing off until to-morrow, that is all
he wants.

I believe more men are lost in this country by delay-
ing than from any other one thing. They mean to be
Christians some time. They mean to settle this question
some time; but they say, "Not to-night. Not to-day.
To-morrow." To-morrow! To-morrow! To-morrow!
Satan knows very well that to-morrow never comes; and
if this question is ever going to be decided, we have
got to decide it in the light we have now. Behold, now
is the accepted time, and now, right here to-night, is
the day of salvation with you.

WHY HALT YE ? 21 3

I remember one night in Chicago, I had been preach-
ing upon the life of Jesus Christ for five Sunday nights
in a large hall that had been built down in the heart of
the city; I had taken Him from his cradle, and had gone
right along toward the grave with Him; and the fifth
Sunday night, I had got Christ into the hands of Pilate,
and I gave that audience one week to decide what they
would do with Him. I have made some mistakes in my
life. I consider that one of the greatest. I would just
as soon to-night give that right hand as to stand up here
and say to you what I said to that audience. I said,
"Now, we want you to take this question home with
you . We want to have you decide what you will do
with God's Son." I gave them Pilate's question, "What
then shall I do with Jesus, which is called Christ?"
Pilate had Him on his hands, and he had to decide the
question. The world has God's Son on its hands, and
you have got to decide what you will do with Him. You
have either got to say, "Crucify Him! Crucify Him!"
or receive Him, one thing or the other. I said to this
audience, "Now, I want you to decide it in the course
of the week, and next Sunday night I want to have you
come and let us know what you will do with God's Son."
I closed that meeting, and while I was closing it a bell
began to strike within half a block. When I heard that
church-bell to-night I wondered if it was a fire-bell. The
great city bell tolled out, you might say, the death knell
of Chicago that night. It sounded out a general alarm.
I paid no attention to it. That is quite common in Chi-
cago. And while I was giving those people a week to
decide that question, Chicago was burning up; and bo-
fore twelve o'clock that hall was in ashes; before two

214 MOODY S SERMONS.

o'clock the church where I worshiped was in ashes; be-
fore three o'clock the house that I lived in was in ashes;
and inside of forty-eight hours from that time a hundred
thousand people were burned out of house and home.
It was estimated that a thousand people burned alive that
night; and right around that hall a good many perished.
One man crawled into a great water-pipe for refuge and
roasted alive. I don't know but that very man heard me
that night when I gave that audience a week to decide
that question. I never have met them since, probably
never will on the shores of time. And do you know
the last hymn that Mr. Sankey sung that night was

" To-day the Savior calls;

For refuge fly.
The storm of vengeance falls,
And death is nigh."

It was almost prophetic. His voice never was heard in
that hall again. We never met on that platform since.
You say, tl I have time enough to decide this." We sepa-
rate now. This is the last time, perhaps, my voice will
ever be heard in this church. • Just before we close, take
a look round. See how that choir looks. Take a look
at these ministers sitting on this platform. See how this
audience looks. We break up in a few minutes, and we
shall never meet again this side of eternity. Shall we
meet there at the right hand of God? That is the ques-
tion. You can decide it to-night. You can set your
faces like a flint toward heaven. You can settle this
question, if you will. But if not, if you reject the Son
of God, and go down to the dark caverns of eternal death,
I believe you will remember this night. You will re-
member how this audience looked. You will remember

WHY HALT YE ? 215

these ministers on this platform praying for you. Their
hearts have been going up to God while I have been
preaching. I have heard their sighs. You are here
among friends; a praying circle, perhaps, all around you;
their silent prayers going up to God that you may de-
cide this question. Dear friends, I want to leave it with
you. What will you do with Jesus? Will you accept
Him, or reject Him? Will you say with the Jews,
" Crucify Him! Crucify Him! " or will you say, " Come
into this heart to-night and dwell with me?" Come,
young man, what will you do with this question to-night?
How long halt ye between two opinions? If the Lord be
God, follow Him; but if Baal, then follow him. Let the
decision be made to-night. Let the news go up on high
that you will take Jesus Christ as your Savior.

SON, REMEMBER.

" Son, remember." — Luke, xvi, 25.

There is just one thing that this man that we have
read of to-night in this chapter took away with him,
and that was his memory. I think it teaches us that
memory is immortal; that we are going to take memory
with us into another world. We often hear that passage
of Scripture quoted about the books being open. I think
that the " books " we read of are the books of memory.
I do not know how a man is to give an account unless it
is from memory. We read that every man shall give an
account, and if he is going to give an account, if his ac-
count has not been blotted out by the blood of Christ,
if he has to give an account of his record, how is he go-
ing to do it unless he does it from memory? Lord
Bacon says that there is no thought that ever passed into
our minds that really is forgotten. ■ We may think we
have forgotten it; it may have passed, as we say, from
memory, but the time is coming when it will come back
again. I believe that memory is "the worm that dieth
not " that we read of in the Scripture.

We hear people talk about certain men having won-
derful memories. I was reading to-night of a man that
had a wonderful memory. It is said of Cyrus, the Per-
sian general, that he had such a memory that he could

216

The Murder of Abel. Genesis, iv, 1-15.

SON, REMEMBER. 2IO,

call by name all the private soldiers in his army. I have
read of a literary man that could repeat everything that
he had ever written. Some of us complain about our
short memories, but I think memory will be long enough
when God says, "Son, remember!" When conscience
is thoroughly aroused, and we are thoroughly awake,
then we cannot help but remember. Memory will do its
work. Memory is God's officer, and when God touches
the secret spring and says, "Son, daughter, remember,"
tramp, tramp, tramp, will go the whole life before us.
Men may plunge into the world, and into amusements;
men may drink and drown their consciences, and drown
memory; but the time is coming when we cannot forget;
the time is coming when memory will do its work, and
we cannot for a moment forget the past. We talk about
the recording angel that is keeping men's records. I
think every man is keeping his own record; we are writ-
ing up our own biography. God makes every man and
every woman keep their own records. And each one of
us to-day has been writing his own record. Day after
day that record is being written. Some men are very
anxious that their biography should be written, but every
man is writing his own biography. He don't need any
one else to write it. The time is coming when God will
just change his countenance and send him away, and tell
him to go and read his own record, read his own life. I
don't believe that God is going to condemn us; I think
we will condemn ourselves. We will not need any one
to condemn us; our own record will condemn us.

That man that we read of that was at the wedding
feast was speechless. Men talk now very fluently and
flippantly about their sins and their life record, but the

220 MOODY S SERMONS.

time is coming when God shall say, " Son, daughter,
remember! " and they will be speechless. There will be
no apology for the past; no amount of tears and prayers
can wipe out the past. Man may forgive himself, and
have a good opinion of himself; and say that his record
is all right, but that don't help the record after all. It
is there. It is written, as it were, with a pen of iron.

I have been twice at the point of death. I was once
drowning. I had gone down for the second time, and
was just going down for the third time, and was proba-
bly within a few minutes of eternity. Although I have
never been able to explain it, and I can't understand it
to-day, in the twinkling of an eye, in a second of time,
everything that I had done, everything that I had said,
everything that I had thought from the cradle up, came
flashing into my mind; my whole life came before me.
How all my life could be crowded into a second of time
I don't understand. It is gone, and I can't recall it again
at the present time. I have not any doubt that when
the time comes, and God says, " Son, remember, " it will
all come back again.

There was a man a few years ago in one of our insane
asylums, walking up and down in the mad-house, and his
cry was, "If I only had! If I only had!" That was
his cry from morning to night in all his wakeful hours.
His story was this: He was employed by a railroad com-
pany to take care of a swing-bridge, and he got a dis-
patch from the superintendent that an extra train was
going to pass over the road, and not to turn the bridge
until the train had passed. One after another came and
tried to have him open that swing-bridge, and he refused
to do it. At last a friend came and over-persuaded him,

SON, REMEMBER. 221

and he opened the bridge. He had no more than got it
open before he heard the train coming. There was not
time enough to close it, and he saw that train leap with
all its living freight into that abyss of death. His reason
reeled and tottered upon its throne, and the man went
mad. His cry was, " If I only had! If I only had!"
I cannot but believe to-night that there is many a man
in the other world whose cry is, * * If I only had! If I
only had!" Memory is at work. They have taken their
memories with them. This is clearly taught in this pas-
sage that we have here.

I have been very much interested in reading the papers
during the past forty-eight hours. There is one man away
across the sea that my heart aches for. He is a stranger
to me. When I took up the papers and read about that
man's confession across the sea, how he confessed that
he killed a man in Cleveland in 1872, my mind went
over those six years and I said, ' ' How much has that man
suffered during the past six years. " Memory had done
its work. He covered up the sin. He thought it was
concealed. He thought it would never come to light.
Six years and upward have rolled away, and the thing
has not been brought to light; but at last his own con-
science, if the report is true, has turned witness against
him.

You very often take up the papers, and you read,
" Murder will out." What does that mean? Memory
has become aroused. There is a man sitting on this
platform to-night that was telling me this afternoon of a
case right here in this city of a man he went to visit in
the jail. He was there awaiting his trial. He was ac-
cused of murder; but hardly any one believed that he

222 MOODY S SERMONS.

was guilty. But in that cell he confessed to this minister
that is on this platform that he had done the deed; and
when this minister went out and told his friends, they
said it was impossible; he could not have done it. He
went back, and the man told him he did the deed, and
explained how he did it; and the reason that he made
that confession was, he said he wanted to get away from
himself. That is it. He wanted to get away from him-
self. That means that he wanted to get away from that
past record. It was black; it was dark; it was vile. How
it is that men dare to sin, and laugh at sin, and mock at
sin, with eternity opening up before them, is one of the
greatest mysteries of the day. They talk about the mys-
tery of godliness, but that men will trifle with sin, and
mock and laugh at sin, is a greater mystery.

It was not long ago that I read in the paper of a dea-
con who was on his way to church to worship; and a
young man came out of a drinking saloon, mounted his
horse and rode up to the deacon, and said to him, " Can
you tell me how far it is to hell?" in a sneering, scoffing
way. The deacon felt it so keenly he did not answer.
The man rode on, turned the corner, and went out of
sight. But when the deacon came to turn that corner
he found that the young man had only gone a few rods
around the corner. The horse had thrown him, and he
had gone into eternity.

O, how men mock at hell! How men mock at God!
It is a mystery to me. " Son," God says, " Remember,"
O, that memory may do its work to-night, that our con-
science may be thoroughly aroused!

I want to ask this congregation one question. Do you
believe that Cain has forgotten that sin that occurred

SON, REMEMBER. 223

outside of Eden? Do you believe that Cain has forgotten
that cry of Abel? Do you believe that all these six
thousand years Cain has forgotten how Abel looked when
he plead with him not to take his life? Do you believe
that Cain has forgotten that cry that came from that
brother that loved him to spare his life? Do you believe
that Cain has forgotten how the first murdered man
looked? Do you believe he hac forgotten how that
human blood looked? These six thousand years have
rolled away, and I believe that Cain has not forgotten it.
He has taken memory into the other world with him.

Do you believe those antediluvians have forgotten how
Noah plead with them, and when he preached righteous-
ness how they mocked and scoffed and ridiculed?

Do you believe Judas has forgotten all these long
years how Christ looked at him when he said, " Judas,
betrayest thou the Master with a kiss ?" I believe that is
what makes hell terrible to Judas. He can remember
the words of the Lord Jesus. He can remember how
Christ looked at him. He can remember the kindness
and love he had received from that loving Savior.

You go down here to yonder prison and ask those
men in the cells of that prison what makes that prison
so terrible to them, and they will not tell you it is the
narrow walls; they will not tell you it is those iron grates;
they will not tell you that it is because that they are de-
prived of their liberty; they will not tell you that it is the
prison garb and prison food. That is not what makes
prison life so terrible. It is memory. It is memory! I
preached seven months to the prisoners in the Maryland
penitentiary, and I talked with a great many of them. A
number of them told me that what made life so terrible

224 Moody's sermons.

there was memory. Their minds went back to their
early childhood; they remembered their loving parents;
they remembered their home, and they remembered
what they might have been; how their hopes and pros-
pects in life were all blasted. That is what makes prison
life so terrible to these men. And what makes life so
bitter to many in this assembly? It is the record that is
behind them. They try to drown it. They try to for-
get it. But, my friends, the time is coming when God
will say, "Son, remember." And you can't get away
from that record. You can't get away from memory. It
will live. You may be very forgetful now. I may be
talking to some libertine in this house to-night that has
ruined some fair young lady, like the one we read of in
Cincinnati. He may go on unpunished. He laughs at
the law. The law can't touch him. But bear in mind
there is a law of equity in heaven, a God of equity, a
God of justice; and by-and-by He will say to that young
man, " Remember how you blasted the life of one that
was fair and beautiful, how you led her from the path of
virtue and purity;" and God will bring him into judg-
ment. "Son, remember." You may go on in your
pleasure; you may go on in your amusements, laughing
and scoffing at God and the Bible; but there is a God in
the heavens, and His eye is going to-and-fro through the
earth, and He marks the man of iniquity. Don't think
for a moment these things can be covered up, and that
they will not overtake you. " Be sure your sin will find
you out."

I was reading not more than a month ago of a man
in your neighboring state of Pennsylvania. In 1866
there were two men that had a falling out at a dance,

SON, REMEMBER. 22 5

and soon after one of them was missing. Search was
made, and he could not be found. A number of years
after, the one that survived him went mad, and he went
up into a mining district where there was a shaft down
in the earth, and as he would look at that shaft he
would cry, "There! There! There he goes! See him."
And they took him to the mad-house and locked him
up, and he died. A little while ago, they found the
skeleton of a man down in that pit, and it is supposed
that he pushed him in. Memory began to do its work,
and it drove the man mad. Don't think that you can
go on sinning day after day, that it is a light matter, that
God is not going to bring you into judgment. It is a
terrible thing. Sin is an awful thing. The longer I
live, the more I am convinced that we do not preach
against sin enough. May God help us, as ministers of
the gospel, to preach against sin that is marring so many
lives, that is blasting so many bright prospects, that is
taking the fairest young men that we have to-day into
crime, that is going to make their lives dark and bitter,
and that is going to make them curse the day that they
were born. They laugh at us now when we warn them.
They mock, and they ridicule. But, young man, I tell
you to-night as a friend, if you take warning you will
thank us for warning you, and if you take not warning
to-night, but go on in your sin, you will regret this night.
You will regret it. The time is not far distant. In some
unguarded moment, perhaps in some drunken spree, you
may commit an act that will blast your life for time and
eternity. You may not intend to do it, but when Satan
has possession of a man, how he leads him on from step
to step until he has ruined him! And I want to say to

226 Moody's sermons.

you men and you women who are out of Christ that it is
very easy for you to come here into this tabernacle to-
night and sit here and ridicule and make light of every-
thing that you hear. You may listen to the sermon, but
in a few minutes after this sermon is preached, and you
get up and go out, you can laugh at and ridicule every-
thing you have heard. To me one of the most painful
things that I have to endure is after a solemn meeting,
when it seems as if God Almighty is in our midst, as if
God was just at work, to go out and to hear the levity
and the jokes, and to hear people laughing away the im-'
pression. O, may God impress us to-night for eternity!
May the work be deep and thorough, so that we cannot
get the arrow out of our hearts! I want to say to you
that have friends that love you, friends that pray for you,
and friends that care for your eternal welfare, treat them
kindly. You will not have them with you in the other
world. There will be no Savior in that world you are
going to. There will be no praying mother that will
plead for you and plead with you, and pray for you.
There will be no praying mothers there. There will be
no godly, praying, sainted wives in that world you are
hastening to. You may make light of them here. You
may mock at their prayers and ridicule all their offers of
mercy, but bear in mind there will be no godly, praying
wife in that world you are going to; no Savior coming to
offer you salvation; knocking at the door of your heart
for admittance. He does not pass that way. You may
come here and hear that beautiful hymn, "Jesus of
Nazareth Passeth By," but He does not pass that way.
You may hear this beautiful hymn, "Waiting and
Watching," and you may know that now you have an

SON, REMEMBER. 227

opportunity to join that heavenly throng, but the time
is coming when that gulf will be fixed, and there will be
no such thing as your meeting those loved ones that have
gone into that world of light and love and joy. Yes, it
is a solemn thing to come into a place like this, and to
have Christ offered to you, and the claims of the gospel
pressed upon you, and you are urged to accept salvation,
and you reject it.

I remember a few years ago in one of our meetings, in
Chicago, the Spirit of God was at work. There were
some inquiring the way of life, and there was a man in
the assembly I had been anxious for a great many
months, and when I asked all those who would like to
become Christians to rise, this man rose. My heart
leaped in me for joy, and when the meeting was over, I
went to him, took him by the hand and said to him.
" Well, now you are coming out for Christ, ain't you?
" Well," said he, " Mr. Moody, I want to be a Christian
but there is one thing that stands in my way." * ' What
is that?" "Well," says he, "I have not the moral
courage," and I believe in my soul to-night that is the
thing that is keeping men from coming to Christ more
than any other one thing. They lack the moral courage
to come out from their scoffing, sneering friends. ' ' Well, ''
I said, "if heaven is what it is represented to be, it is
surely worth your coming out and confessing Christ, and
being laughed at for a little while down here." He drop-
ped his head and said, "I know it, I believe it, but,"
naming a certain friend of his, " if he had been here to-
night, I should not have risen. I looked around to see if
he was here, and when I found he was not, I rose for
prayers. I am afraid if I meet him, and he finds out I

228 Moody's sermons.

have risen, he will laugh at me, and I will not have the
courage to stand up for what is right; and I know I can
not be a Christian unless I deny myself, and take up my
cross and come out." I said, "You are quite right."
The poor man was trembling from head to foot. I
thought surely he would come out on the Lord's side.
Like Agrippa, he was almost persuaded. I thought surely
that night he would settle the question, perhaps in his
own home, and the next night I would find him rejoicing
in the Savior. But he came back the next night, and I
found he was in the same state of mind. The spirit was
still striving with him. He was almost persuaded, but
not altogether. The next night he came again, and I
found him in the same state of mind. And the only
thing that man gave as an excuse for not becoming a
Christian, was that he had not the moral courage.

John Bunyan describes one coming up to the gate of
heaven, and there was a side way down to the gate of the
pit, and many of them took that side way. It seems this
man came to the gate of heaven, and one step more would
have taken him across the line. But this man-fearing
spirit kept him from taking that step. Almost, yet not
altogether. Well, weeks rolled away, and the impres-
sion seemed to pass away. You know that is the thing
they bring against these special meetings. They say it
hardens some people. That is quite right. The gospel
proves a savor of life unto life, or a savor of death unto
death. Every time you hear the gospel of Jesus Christ
preached, and Christ is offered to you, and you reject
him, the hardening process is going on. Every time you
turn your back upon this offer, your heart is becoming
hard. Many a man in this congregation would have been

SON, REMEMBER. 229

impressed ten years ago by a sermon which made no im-
pression on him now. The hardening process has been
going on. They have become not only neglectors of sal-
vation, but they despise it. They not only refuse it, but
they despise the God of salvation. Well, the hardening
process went on with this man. He used to come to
church every Sunday morning, but now he dropped off
and did not come at all. He would be at work Sunday,
and if I met him coming down the street he would slip
off down some other way, ashamed to meet me, afraid I
would talk with him. At last he was taken sick and sent
for me. I went to see him and he said to me, " Is there
any hope for a man to be saved at the eleventh hour? "
I told him there was hope for any man who really wanted
to become a Christian. I preached Christ to him, ex-
plained to him the way of life, told him how he could be
saved. I went down to see him day after day. Con-
trary to all expectations the man began to recover.
When he got up from that sick bed, I went down one
day and found him convalescent, sitting in front of his
house. I took my seat beside him and said, " Well,
now you will be well enough to come up to church in a
few days, and when you are well enough you are coming
out to confess Christ, and take your stand for Christ."
''Well," says he, " I have made up my mind to become
a Christian, but I am not going to become one just now.
Next spring I am going over Lake Michigan, and I am
going to buy me a farm and settle down, and then I am
going to become a Christian; but there is no use of my
talking of becoming a Christian here in Chicago. I can't
do it. I have so many bad associates I can't live a
Christian life in Chicago." " Well," I said, ' ' my friend,

230 Moody's sermons.

if God hasn't got grace enough to keep you in Chicago,
He hasn't got enough to keep you in Michigan. What
you want is not a change of associates, but a new heart,
and the grace of God to keep you. He is able to keep
you." I plead with him not to postpone this great ques-
tion any longer. I tried to arouse him up. At last he
got a little worried and a little cross at me, and says,
11 Mr. Moody, you can just attend to your own business,
and I will attend to mine. I don't want you to trouble
yourself any more about my soul. I will attend to that."
I said, " You can't afford to put this thing off." l< Well,"
he says, " if I am lost it will not be your fault. You
have done everything you can. I don't want you to
trouble yourself any more." When I hear people say in
these meetings, " I don't want you to trouble me," it
sends a pang into my heart, when we try to do you good
and bring you a blessing, to have you to turn your back
and say, "I don't want Christ. I have no desire for
Him."

This man said, " I will take the risk." I was telling
him he could not afford to take the risk, he said, " I will
take it." I would like to ask if there is a man in this
house to-night that will take the risk of his soul's salva-
tion for twenty-four hours. Dare you say, " I will take
it? " It was a number of months he was going to take
it. When he got over to Michigan on his farm and got
settled down, he was going to become a Christian. I
tried to arouse him; he got angry, and I left him. If
ever I left a man with a sad heart it was when I left that
man. I remember the day of the week. It was Friday.
It was about noon that I left him. Just a week from
that day I got a message from his wife. She wanted to

SON, REMEMBER. 23 1

have me come in great haste. I went to the house and
I met her at the door weeping. I said, ' ' What is the
trouble?" "My husband has been taken down with the
same disease. We have just had a council of physicians,
and they have all given him up to die. "

I said, " Does he want to see me?" knowing how angry
he was only the week before. She said, " No. I asked
him if I should not send for you, and he said no, he did
not want to see you." "Well, why did you send?"
" Well, I can't bear to see him die in this terrible state
of mind." "What is his state of mind?" "He says
his damnation is sealed, and that he will be in hell in a
little while." [ went into the room where he was, and
the moment he heard the door open he looked and saw
who it was, and he turned his face to the wall. I went
to the bed and spoke to him, and he did not answer. I
said, "Won't you speak to me?" I went around to the
foot of the bed where I could look at him, and said
again, "Won't you speak to me?" He turned and looked
at me, and what a look it was! He said, "You need
not talk to me any more, sir. My damnation is sealed.
There is no hope for me." I tried to tell him there was,
but he ridiculed the idea that there was any hope for
him. Memory had begun to do its work. His whole
life came up before him, and he said, "I have done
nothing but sin against God all my life; and a week ago
when you were here and I thought I was going to get
well, I turned away from God. He came knocking at
the door of my heart. I told Him, if He would spare my
life, I would let Him in. And He took me at my word.
But the moment I got up I turned my back upon Him.
There is no hope for me. You need not talk to me.

232 MOODY'S SERMONS.

You need not pray for me. You cannot save me, sir*
There is no hope for me. I have got to die in my sins.
There is no chance for my soul." I tried to tell him
there was. He pointed his finger at the stove and said,
11 My heart is as hard as the iron in that stove. There
is no hope for me." I went to get down on my knees,
and when he saw me kneel he said, "Mr. Moody, you
need not pray for me. You can pray for my wife and
children. They need your prayers and sympathies. You
need not spend your time praying for me. There is no
hope for me." I tried to pray for him, but it seemed as
if my prayers did not go any higher than my head. I
got up and took his hand, and it seemed as if I was bid-
ding farewell to a friend that I never would see again in
time or eternity. The cold, clammy sweat of night was
gathering on that hand. I bade him a final farewell. I
I left his house about noon. He lingered until the sun
went down behind those western prairies, and his wife
told me that from the time I left him until he died, all
she heard was, ' ' The harvest is past, the summer is
ended, and I am not saved." You could hear his cries
all over the house. Just as the sun was going down, he
was sinking away into the arms of death, and his wife
noticed his lips quivering. He was trying to say some-
thing. She bent over, and all she could hear was that
awful lamentation of the prophet, " The harvest is past,
the summer is ended, and I am not saved," and he passed
away. He lived a Christless life; he died a Christless
death; we wrappedhim in a Christless shroud, and laid
him in a Christless coffin. How dark! How sad! The
sin of procrastination!

O my friends, this night be wise. Ask God this
night and this hour to forgive you. Make up your minds
that you will this night settle this question for time and
eternity.

Joseph Sold into Egypt. Genesis, xxxvii.

BE NOT DECEIVED.

You will find my text, this evening, in the sixth chap-
ter of Galatians, the seventh and eighth verses, "Be not
deceived; God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man sow-
eth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his
flesh, shall of the flesh, reap corruption; but he that sow-
eth to the spirit, shall of the spirit, reap life everlasting."

When Mr. Sankey was singing that hymn to-night,
about sowing the seed, I thought of a meeting we had in
Chicago, three years ago, this month. There was a poor
man came into that meeting, discouraged, disheartened.
He had run away from his friends, in the hope that he
might come to Chicago, and die in the gutter. He had
given up all hope of becoming a sober man. He was the
son of a good man; he was the husband of a lovely wife;
he was the father of two beautiful daughters. But he
had become such a slave to strong drink, that he had
given up all hope. That night, he came into the taber-
nacle, because it was cold, and he wanted to get into a
warm place. He went up into the gallery and got behind
a post, and he said, as the people came in, well dressed,
and looking so happy, he looked down upon them and
gnashed his teeth, and cursed the day that he was born.
At last, Mr. Sankey struck up that hymn, "Sowing the
seed." The man said he did not take any interest in

235

236 Moody's sermons.

the singing, until he came to the third verse, and that
was the verse that reached him. And, when Mr. Sankey
was singing to-night, I was in hopes it would reach some
one else. Let me read you the verse that God used to
rouse that man.

' 'Sowing the seed of a lingering pain,
Sowing the seed of a maddened brain,
Sowing the seed of a tarnished name,
Sowing the seed of eternal shame !
O, what shall the harvest be ?"

Three years have rolled away. One of the most effi-
cient workers to-day, in Chicago, is that man. I have
seen him move an audience, as I think, I never saw an
audience moved. God reached very low when he picked
him up. His wife and children are with him now — a
happy home. I hope God will rouse some one here to-
night. I hope there will be some one aroused, to-night,
by the Spirit of God. And I want to say, to you Chris-
tians, that if you pray and are looking right up to God for
power to-night, there may be some one convicted. The
sermon is not going to convict anyone. It is the Spirit
of God that convicts men of sin. Man has not the power
to rouse men. He can speak to the outward ear, but
God has got to speak to the ear of the soul. God has
got to make these dead souls live. What we want is the
Holy Ghost power here to-night.

I remember the first time I ever preached from that
text was in the city of Boston. I commenced, "Be not
deceived, " and I pointed down in the audience and said,
"Young man, 'be not deceived !' " and a man had been
coming there for two weeks; he had just come, he said,
gut of curiosity. He had lost all hope. He was a poor

BE NOT DEEIVCED. 237

prodigal, turned out of his own home, and a wanderer in
the city of Boston. But God had used just these words,
''Be not deceived," and he waked up to the fact, that he
had been deceived. From his childhood, all along up, he
had been deceived, and that young man became a Chris-
tian; and when I was at Cooper Institute, two weeks ago
to-night, I found him clothed and in his right mind. He
had been working for Jesus Christ all these months, and
now he is a very efficient worker.

My friends, let us pray to-night that the text may do
its work. The sermon is of very little account after all.
It is the text we want. The sermon is just to drive the
nail. And now, never mind the sermon, but pray God
to carry the text down into the hearts of the people. In-
fidels and skeptics tell us the word is not true; but who
can deny that text? " Be not deceived; God is not mocked.
Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." We
can see that all adout us. A man is doubly blind that cannot
see that fulfilled every day. These gray-haired men know
that; they have lived long enough to see men reaping,
to-day, what they have sown. " Be not deceived!" It is
a decree of high heaven that a man must reap what he
sows. These farmers, when they sow, expect to reap.
A man learns a trade. He is learning that trade, because
he expects to reap, by-and-by, a harvest. A man that is
toiling hard to get a profession— you take some of these
lawyers, that have toiled ten or fifteen years; they expect
by-and-by, a harvest. They expect it. That is what
they are sowing for. You take some of these medical men ;
they commenced practice, and they have hard work for
years to get a-going; and some people say, " Why don't
you give it up?" "Why," they say, u I expect to reap

238

by-and-by." They are looking forward to the reaping
time. They are just laying the foundation, sowing the
seed, but they say, "I expect to reap by-and-by."

Then there is another thing; a man expects to reap
the same kind of seed that he sows. " Whatsoever a
man soweth, that shall he also reap." If a man sows
wheat, he does not look for watermelons. If a man
plants potatoes, he does not look for grapes; he expects
to dig potatoes. If he sows wheat, he looks for wheat;
he does not look for oats; he does not look for anything
else but wheat. He expects to reap the same kind of
seed that he sows.

Well, now, that is true in the natural world, and, my
friends, it is true in the spiritual world. A young man
says, in a flippant, fluent way, that he is just sowing his
wild oats; he is a young man. He forgets that it is a
decree of high heaven that he has got to reap those wild
oats. It is no laughing matter. It is astonishing, just
to see men hold their heads up with a scorning look, and
say, "O, well, we are young men now, and you know we
must have our time, sowing our wild oats. We must
have a little of the world, and see a little of its pleasures;''
but they seem to forget, that if they sow to the wind,
they must reap to the whirlwind.

And you will find that this runs all through life. You
let me be a deceitful man, and let me deceive others, and
I will be paid back in my own coin; others will deceive
me. You let me teach my children to disobey God, and
they will turn around and disobey me. Many a man has
got a broken heart, because he taught his children to be
disloyal to God, and they have turned around and been
disloyal to him. God knows that, and He tells us to

BE NOT DECEIVED. 239

train our children to honor him, so they may honor us
in our old age. I have a case in my mind now, where a
man reaped just the same kind of seed that he sowed.
He was a wealthy man. He was what the world would
call a prosperous man. He had a good bar, and right
near him lived a widow, with an only son, and that son
was enticed into that place, night after night, and at last
he came home drunk. When the widow waked up to the
fact that her only son was becoming a drunkard, she
went to that rum seller, and begged him not to sell her
boy any more liquor; and he told her to mind her own
business, and he would mind his; that he would sell to
whom he pleased; he had a license, and he would go on
selling. And he did continue selling to that boy, until
at last, he went down to a drunkard's grave; and that
gray-haired mother is now tottering upon the brink of the
grave, with a broken heart. But it was not five years,
before that rumseller's only son, in a drunken spree, put
a revolver to his head, and blew out his brains; and that
father went down to his grave with a broken heart. He
had to reap just what he sowed. If I sell another man's
son rum and ruin him, some one will ruin my boy; that
is a decree of heaven. You cannot get around it. It is
madness for a man to shut his eyes to these facts. You
can close up the Bible and see this constantly carried
out.

I remember reading in history, in the days of Louis
XI, he had a cruel, wicked bishop, that was persecuting
some of the saints of the Most High God; and the king
wanted to know how he could make their punishment
more cruel and bitter. "Well," said the bishop, "make
them a cage, and have it so short and narrow they can-

240 MOODY S SERMONS.

not lie down, and so low they cannot stand straight, and
they will be in a bent position, all the while." The king
ordered the cage made, and the very first one that went
into that cage was that bishop himself. He had offended
the king, before he got the cage finished; and for four-
teen long years, the king kept him in that cage. He had
to reap what he sowed.

Another thing, when a man sows, he expects to reap
more than he sows. You sow a handful of grain, and
you will reap a bushel. Some men think, that it is pret-
ty hard to have to reap more than they sow. But, then,
you ought to think of that, when you are sowing. That
is a law of nature. You must reap more than you sow.
Why, many a man has brought ruin upon himself and
his whole family by one act, for just one night's pleasure;
and he blasted his reputation, his character, and the
hopes of his friends — all gone. Sometimes a man has
to reap when he sows; it comes quick; judgment follows,
right on after the act; as in the case of Judas, and of
Cain. Sometimes, as I said last night, sentence is de-
layed, but it is surely coming. There is one thing a man
can always count on, and that is, that his sin will over-
take him.

The Bible says, "Be sure your sin will find you out."
A man may laugh at that and say, ' T will cover up my
tracks, so they cannot find me out. I will bury the
deed so deep that it shall never have a resurrection."
Young man, "Be not deceived; God is not mocked; what-
soever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." You may
sow it in darkness, and you may say that no eye has
seen you; but God has seen you; His eyes go to and fro
through the earth. He knows what the sons of men are

BE NOT DECEIVED. 24.I

doing, and you cannot deceive Him. I will venture to
say there is not a man or woman in this audience to-
night but has been deceived. You know what it is to
be deceived. You have been deceived by some of your
neighbors. You have been deceived and "taken in," as
you call it, by some stranger that has come along. You
know what it is to be deceived. There is not a man or
woman in this audience but what has been deceived.
You have been deceived by some bosom friend, by some
brother or first cousin, perhaps. But more than that,
you have been deceived by your own heart. I will ven-
ture to say, we have been deceived, more by our own
treacherous hearts than anything else." " The heart is de
ceitful above all things, and desperately wicked." There-
fore, if a man is guided by his own dark mind and dark
heart, he will be led astray. What we want, is not to be
deceived by our own heart. God does not deceive us,
and He does not want us to attempt to deceive Him. ' Be
not deceived. God is not mocked." When man sins, it
is known. God knows it. It is blindness and folly for
him to think it will never come to light. It may be
twenty years afterwards; but sin will overtake him as it
did Jacob. Look at those sons of Jacob, when Joseph
was taken and thrown into prison. "We do remember
our fault this day, how Our loved brother Joseph pleaded."
Twenty long years had rolled away, and their sin had
overtaken them in a strange land. Be sure that your sin,
young man, will find you out. It may be, this very day,
you took out of your employer's till twenty-five cents.
Perhaps last week, you took fifty cents, and went to the
theater with it. But you say, "I will put it back some
time." That is the way these defaulters begin. That is

242 Moody's sermons.

the way forgers begin. Men don't go to a precipice and
jump down. They come down step by step. It is these
little things, twenty-five cents or a dollar. You say, I
can replace that anytime; that don't amount to anything."
Ah, my friends, "Be not deceived." A man that steals
twenty-five cents is just as much of a thief as one that
steals $5,000. He has made his conscience guilty. He
is not the man he was before he took it. He is laying a
bad foundation, and if he attempts to build on that
foundation the structure will fall.

When we were in New York City, a man came up
from the boat to the hippodrome. He was out of mon-
ey, had no friends, and was a perfect stranger. He was
a fine looking young man, and I said to him, "How is
this? How is it you come over here, a perfect stranger;
without money, and without friends? " The poor fellow
took me off to one side, and told me the story. He
said he had held a high position in England, but one
night he was out gambling with his employer's money;
he was the confidential man, and carried the money that
belonged to his employers; these men that were gambling
with him got him drunk, and he gambled away all of
his employer's money, and the only thing for him to do
was to go to prison or escape — flee to this country. I
talked to him and found he had left a beautiful wife and
a beautiful family of children. I said, "How is it? Do
they know where you are? " "No,"saidhe, "theydon't."
I said, "Was that not pretty hard?" The poor man
wrung his hands, and says, "I am broken-hearted; not
only, my own character gone, but brought ruin upon my
wife and children." Ah, just one night's pleasure, one
night in that gambling den, and he was stripped of all,

BE NOT DECEIVED. 243

There was a stain, and he could not wipe it out. God in
mercy forgave him, but at the same time, a man has got
to reap what he sows. I can imagine I hear some one
say, "I would like to hear you explain that — if Jesus
Christ forgives, how is it a man has got to reap what he
sows? "

You know the Bible tells us the penalty of sin is death
— the soul that sinneth, it shall die. Now, Christ will
meet that penalty, because he will save my soul; but, at
the same time, if God forgives me, I have to reap what
I sow; for instance, I send a man out to sow wheat, and
he gets mad at me and sows thistles. When the reaping
time comes, I ask him, "Do you know anything about
these thistles?" and he says, "Mr. Moody, I got mad at
you that day when you sent me out to sow wheat, and I
sowed thistles; I am very sorry, will you forgive me?" I
will forgive you, but I tell you, when you reap that wheat
you will have to reap thistles too. God may forgive a
man, but at the same time, he has got to reap what he
sows. One act may make me reap all the rest of my
days with sorrow, with shame. God may forgive me, yet
I have to reap. I think I can make that still plainer.
When we were preaching in the tabernacle, in Chicago,
one night, a young man came into the inquiry-room, a
fine looking young man. The minister tried to talk to
him, but he did not seem to open up. The minister said
to me, ' ' I wish you would come and see this young man. "
I went down and sat down by his side. The poor fellow
trembled. He was greatly agitated. I could not talk
v/iin him as mucn as L would like to, so I said, "I wish
you would come to-morrow at one o'clock, at the close
of the noon meeting. " At one o'clock, that young man

244 Moody's sermons.

was there. He was from Ohio, not far from Cleveland.
He went on and told me his history. He told me he was
a telegraph operator. The boys in the express office
where they officed and himself used to meet nights and
play cards. One night they suggested they would break
into the express office, out for fun. He said, at last,
they broke into the express office. He was arrested,
tried and acquitted. When they found him innocent,
they took him right up in their arms and carried him out
in the street, and just cheered and cheered. He said
it went like a hot iron into his soul. He said he was
guilty, and for seven months he had not known what
peace was. Now, says he, "I would like to know if I
can become a Christian, without giving myself up to the
law and confessing my guilt." I said, " I never like to ad-
vise a man to do what I would not do myself, and I dont
know what I would do if I was in that situation. But
it is always safe to ask God. Let us get down and pray
about this matter." We got down, and I prayed, and the
minister that was with us prayed, and then we asked this
young man to pray. He said, " No, sir." Said I, " Why
not?" "I know what that means; if I pray, I have to
give myself up to the law." Said I, "My friend, it is al-
ways safe to do what God wants you to do. You had
better ask Him for guidance." At last, the young man
opened his lips in prayer. After prayer, he said, "Well,
gentlemen, I thank you for the interest you have taken
in me. My duty is very plain. I will submit to the
law. I am going down to Ohio to give myself up." He
took the train that afternoon. When he got about fifty
miles out of the city, he sent me back a dispatch that he
had set his face to do right, and God revealed Himself

BE NOT DECEIVED. 245

to him and the Lord blessed him on the train. And he
came down home. I wish I had the letter he wrote me.
I think I never wept so much over a letter as I did over
that. He had a Christian mother down here, not far
from Cleveland, and father, and there were eight broth-
ers and sisters. When he got home, they were all glad
to see him. They had not seen him for seven months.
He said that evening, after they had all got in the house
and quiet, he just told them how God had met him, and
how he was then coming home to confess his guilt. His
father and mother and family thought him innocent up
to that night; but he said, "I stole that money, and I
am a perjured man; I am on my way now to give my-
self up to the law." He says to his father, "I know I
have brought disgrace upon you. I have done wrong. I
want you to forgive me." The old man says, "Yes, I will
forgive you. " He said to his mother, ' ' Can you forgive me,
can you forgive your boy ?" The mother said, " Yes, I will
forgive you, my son," and the brothers and sisters all said
they would forgive him. Then he got down and prayed,
the first prayer he had made, except the one he had made
there in Chicago, the next morning he left that home
of weeping and gave himself up to the law. He
was tried at Akron, and sent to the penitentiary.
His mother was taken down some time after with
Typhoid fever, and the boy could not go to see
the mother. Tell me that he did not have to reap
what he sowed. Tell me that the reaping was not fear-
ful ! That godly, praying mother, dying in his own
state, and he could not go to see her. Though God in
His infinite mercy had forgiven him, yet the boy had to
reap what he sowed. He had sowed to the wind and was

246 Moody's sermons.

reaping the whirlwind. Don't make light of sin. Sin is
a fearful thing. It makes life so dark. At last, the fa-
ther was taken down with typhoid fever, and it was
thought he was dying, and some Cleveland men went to
the governor of the state, and the first pardon, your
present governor granted was for that young man.
When he got out, he telegraphed me that he had got
his release and went home to nurse his father, and, as he
supposed, to see him die. But the father recovered.
Then a brother was taken down. He watched over that
brother, and the brother died. At last, this young man
was taken down and when he was given up to die, he
asked that the Christians of that town should come to
his bedside to pray with him; and he lifted up his voice
in prayer, and in a little while he passed away, and he is in
the world of light to-night. The poor boy has had to
reap. Do you think he ever forgave himself? God for-
gave him, but he did not forgive himself. It is a fearful
thing to sow wild oats. You will laugh at it now, but
the reaping time is coming by-and-by, and there will be
no laughing when the reaping time comes. Cain would
have liked to change places with Abel when the
reaping time came. Do you think Ahab would not like
to take Elijah's place. If a man goes on sowing, he has
got to reap. If he don't reap here, he has got to reap
hereafter, because it is a decree of high heaven, "What-
soever a man soweth, that he shall also reap."

O friends, I beg of you to-night be wise and turn from
sin; hate it with a perfect hatred; ask God this night to
forgive you and help you to do right, because he wants
you to do right.

The Betrayal. Luke, xxii.

LOVE.

You can find my text to-night almost anywhere in the
Bible. My text is "Love," the "Love of God." This
fourth chapter of John's epistle, that I have read to-
night, says, "God is love," and I don't know of any
truth that Satan is more anxious to blot out of the Bible,
than that one thing, that "God is Love." If I could
convince the world that God loves them, I think I would
not preach anything else, but just the love of God. I
would go up and down this nation, and tell it out in
town and cities and villages. The enemy of righteous-
ness is deceiving the world upon this point. Man has a
false idea about God. He has an idea that God hates
him because he is a sinner; he has an idea that God is
angry with him and don't love him.

I remember, a few years ago, we put up a church in
Chicago, in the heart of the city, where the churches
had been moved away, and left a large class of people.
There was a Christian man there that helped me put
the building up, and he was anxious that people should
believe that God was love. He was so afraid that I
would not preach it enough that he had it put back of
the pulpit, in gas jets, "God is Love." He thought, if
I could not preach it into the hearts of the people, he
would try and burn it in.

249

2 $0 Moody's sermons.

I remember, one night, while I was preaching, a poor
fellow was going by, half under the influence of liquor.
The door was ajar, and he looked in and saw the text,
"God is love," and he kept saying, " God is not love,
It is not true. It is a. lie." He went on for a block or
two, and came back and took a seat away back by the
door, and when I was preaching, the poor fellow was
weeping. After the sermon was over, I went down and
talked with him. I found that the spirit of God was
working with him, and I tried to find out what part of
the sermon had touched him, and he said he did not
know a thing I said. ' ' What were you doing here, you
did not know a thing I said?" "Ah, sir, that text up
there, "God is love," melted my heart." And he got
down on his knees with me, and made a surrender to the
God of love.

Now, to-night you may ask me, " Why does God love
those who are not worthy of His love? Why does He
love the unlovely? " Well, I don't know that I can an-
swer that any better than by saying, why does the sun
shine? Because it can't help it. Why does God love?
Because He can't help it. That is His nature. He
is love, and there is not a man on the face of the earth
to-night that God don't love. God hates sin, but he
makes a distinction between sin and sinner. God loves
the sinner, but He is at war with sin, because He knows
that sin mars our happiness. Because He loves us He
wants us to forsake sin and turn from it. I think one
reason we are so blind to the word of God is, that we
are alwavs measuring God bv our rule. We love a man
as long as he is worthy of our love, and when he ceases
to be worthy of our love we cast him off. Not so with

LOVE. 251

God. We must not measure God with our rule. God's
love is unchangeable.

I will call your attention to the first verse of the thir-
teenth chapter of John. " Now, before the feast of the
passover, when Jesus knew that His hour was come, that
He should depart out of the world unto the Father, hav-
ing loved His own which were in the world He loved
them unto the end." Now that very night they were to
forsake Him. That very night, Judas was to betray Him,
for thirty pieces of silver. That very night, Peter was to
deny Him, and swear he never knew Him. Yet we are
told, that on that memorable night, Christ loved them.
His love was unchangeable. I believe when Judas stepped
up to Him in the garden and betrayed Him with a kiss,
and Christ said, "Judas, betrayest thou the Master with
a kiss? " that there was such love in the tone of His voice,
such love in that look, that it drove Judas to remorse
and despair. I believe it is that that is making hell so
terrible to Judas. He trampled upon the love of God.
He went down to perdition trampling that love under his
feet. I know that is what broke Peters heart; He
turned and gave Peter one look, and there was so much
love in that look, he went out and wept bitterly. It took
Satan hours to win his love from Christ; it took only one
look of Christ to win it back again. Yes, His love is
unchangeable. That is the difference between human
love and Divine love. Human love is very changeable.
Some people who thought a good deal of you and me a
few years ago, don't care for us now. Their love has
died out. But not so with Him. His love is unchange-
able. If there is one here to-night who has wandered
away from Jesus Christ, and is in a backslidden state, I

252 MOODY S SERMONS.

want to tell you, backslider, that He loves you still, and
wants you to return to Him.

But, again, His love is not only unchangeable, but
unfailing. I want to call your attention to a verse you
will find in the forty-ninth chapter of the prophecy of
Isaiah, ' ' Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she
should not have compassion on the son of her womb?
Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Behold,
I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy
walls are continually before me. "

Can a mother forget the little child of her bosom? Do
you mothers forget your children? Now, that is perhaps
the strongest love we know anything about on earth, a
mother's love. There are a great many things that will
separate a man from his wife; a great many things that
will separate a father from his son, but there is not any-
thing in the wide world, that will separate a true mother
from her own child. They say that death has borne
down everything in this world, but there is one thing
stronger than death; that is a mother's love. Death has
never been able to conquer that. Now, the prophet
seizes hold of that.

" Can a mother forget the child of her bosom? Yea,
she may forget, but I will never forget thee."

Now, love always descends. I love my children more
than they love me. They very often say that they love
me the most. They think they do, but it is not true. I
used to tell my mother I loved her more than she did
me. She would tell it was not so; that she loved me
the most. Since I have become a parent, I find that is
true. I love my children more than they can love me.
God loves a thousand times more than we can love Him»

LOVE. 2 53

The apostle says, "Herein is love; not that we loved
God, but that He loved us ;" so unlovable, so vile, so
polluted. That is a love worth talking about — that
God has fixed His love upon us, and that He loves us
"with an everlasting love," as we read in Jeremiah.

There is no end to that love; it is everlasting. I do
not know that we can illustrate God's love better than
by examples of human love. Your mothers know that
there is nothing in your power to do that you will not do
for your children, that is for their good. There are
some things you will withhold from them, because you
love them too much to grant all their wishes; and they
think you don't love them, because you do not grant
their wishes. So, sometimes, we think God don't love
us, because He don't grant all our requests and don't an-
swer all our prayers just in the time and place that we
would have them answered. A mother's love may be
very strong, but it is not to be compared with the love
of God.

I remember of reading, some time ago, of a scene in a
court in this country that impressed me very much. A
young man had become reckless, and had murdered a
man. He was arrested and sent to jail. The father, a
very proud-spirited man, refused to have anything to do
with that boy; refused to go to the prison to see him,
and the other sons took the same course. They said
they would not go to see that brother. But that mother
went down to the prison cell, and every time she could
get into the jail where that boy was, she was there.
When the time came for his trial, she went into court
and took her seat as near her boy as she could; and when
the spectators came in„ -she was not ashamed to be

2 54 MOODY S SERMONS.

pointed out as the mother of that reckless young man.
That is a mother's love. She loved him still. Her love
was as strong as it ever was, and when the trial came on,
and the witnesses came and testified against her boy, it
seemed to hurt the mother more than it did the boy.
When the jury brought in a verdict that he was guilty,
the mother, when she got a chance, threw her arms
around her boy's neck, there in court, and wept over him.
She did not give him up. He was sent back to his cell;
and every time she could get into that cell, she was there.
That is a mother's love. A mother will not go to see her
boy executed, but if she can get his body after he is ex-
ecuted, she will cover it with her tears, and will
go to the grave and plant flowers upon it, and drop tears
upon those flowers. That is a mother's love It is far
stronger than death. But that love is faint as compared
with the love that God has for every soul here to-night.
' ' A mother may forget her child, but I will never forget
thee!" His love is unfailing.

I want to say to every man that is without God and
without hope, don't be deceived in this matter; don't
think for a moment that God don't love you, because you
are a sinner. It is not true. Christ died for the ungodly.
While we were without strength, Christ died. God gave
His Son to the world. The world is at war with Him.
We are fighting against Him. The world took His Son
and put Him to death. The world is at enmity against
God. While this world was at enmity against God, He
gave His Son freely for us all.

There was a time when I thought a good deal more of
Christ than the Father. I thought Christ came in to act
as meditator between me and an angry judge, and Christ
seemed far nearer to me than the Farther but since J be-

LOVE. 255

came a father, that feeling is all gone. It must have
taken more love for God to give up His Son than it did
for Christ to come and suffer. It would be far easier for
me to die than to see my son put to death before my
eyes.

Think of the love God has for this lost world, when
He gave Christ freely for us all! Think of the glory and
honor He had in that upper world. Of His stooping from
that throne, coming down into this world and suffering
and dying that you and I might, through His death, enter
into life eternal ' ' Greater love hath no man than this,
that a man lay down his life for his friends." Christ not
only laid down his life for His friends, but He laid down
his life for His enemies.

But I can imagine some of you say, " Well, I believe
that Christ loves Christians and those that love Him, and
keep His commandment, and statutes; but then T am a
poor, miserable, vile sinner. I never loved Him. I never
recognized Him. I never kept His commandments, and
I believe God hates me. Don't it say in the Bible that
God is angry with the sinner every day?" That is one of
the strongest proofs that God loves the sinner. If I have
a boy who goes astray, I get angry with him, but is that
a proof that I do not love him? That is one of the
strongest proofs in the Bible that God loves you, because
He does not want you to sin and bring ruin and blight
upon your life. The strongest proof of God's love is that
He gave Christ to die for our sins. That cross testifies
the love of God for this world. That cross on Calvary
speaks out nothing but the love God had for this world.

When the communists took Paris, they took the Ro-
man Catholic Archbishop and threw him into prison,

256 MOODY'S SERMONS.

tried him and condemned him to death. In his little cell
there was a window, in the shape of a cross; he took his
pencil and wrote at the top of it, " Height," at the
bottom, " Depth," and at each end of the arms, "Length"
and "Breadth." Ah, that Roman Catholic had been to
Calvary and had surveyed the glory of that cross. He
had drank in its truth. That cross tells us of God's love.
Height: it reaches to the very throne of heaven. Depth:
it reaches to the bottom of a lost world. Length
and Breadth: it reaches to the very corners of the earth.
There was something stronger than those iron nails that
held Him to that cross; it was the love He had for a per-
ishing world. Paul prayed among those Ephesians
that they might know the height and depth and the
breadth of God's love. How are we going to know it if
we do not go to Calvary and see how He died, that you
and I might live, and hear that piercing cry on the cross,
' ' Father, forgive them, for they know not what they
do?" There is love for you.

I remember when I was in Dublin, Ireland, in 1867,
I met what they called "the Boy Preacher." I had read
in the papers about "the Boy Preacher," but I did not
know this was the one. He introduced himself to me,
and said he would like to come to Chicago and preach.
I looked at him; he was a beardless boy; didn't look as if
he was more than seventeen, and I said to myself, ' ' He
can't preach." He wanted me to let him know what
boat I was going on as he would like to go on the boat
with me. Well, I thought he could not preach and did
not let him know. I had not been in Chicago a great
many weeks, before I got a letter which said he had ar-
rived in this country, and that he would come to Chicago

LOVE. 2 57

and preach for me if I wanted him. Well, I sat down
and wrote him a very cold letter. "If you come west,
call on me." I thought that would be the last I should
hear of him. But I soon got another letter saying that
he was still in this country and would come to Chicago
and preach for me if I wanted him. I wrote again, if he
happened to come west to drop in on me; and in the
course of a few days, I got a letter stating that next
Thursday he would be in Chicago and would preach for
me. Then what to do with him I did not know. I had
made up my mind he could not preach. I was going to be
out of town Thursday and Friday, and I told some of the
officers or trustees of the church, "There is a man com-
ing here Thursday and Friday who wants to preach. I
don't know whether he can or not. You had better let
him preach, and I will be back Saturday.

They said there was a good deal of interest in the
church, and they did not think they had better have him
preach then; he was a stranger, and he might do more
harm than good. "Well," I said, " you had better try
him. Let him preach two nights," and they finally let
him preach. When I got back Saturday morning, I was
very anxious to know how he got on. The first thing I
said to my wife when I got in the house was, " How is
that young Irishman coming on?" I had met him in
Dublin and took him to be an Irishman, but he happened
to be an Englishman. " How do the people like him?"
"They like him very much." " Did you hear him? "
"Yes." " Well, did you like him?" "Yes, I liked
him very much. He has preached two sermons from
that text in the third chapter of John, "For God so
loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that

258 Moody's sermons.

whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have
everlasting life; and," she says, " I think you will like
him, although he preaches a little different from what
you do." " How is that? " " Well, he tells sinners God
loves them." "Well," said I, "he is wrong. " She said,
"I think you will agree with him when you hear him,
because he backs up everything he says with the word of
God. You think if a man don't preach as you do, he is
wrong." I went down that night to church and I no-
ticed every one brought his Bible. " Now, " he said,
" my friends, if you will turn to the third chapter of
John and the sixteenth verse, you will find my text." He
preached a most extraordinary sermon from that sixteenth
verse. He did not divide the text into "secondly" and
"thirdly" and "fourthly" — -he just took the whole text,
and then went through the Bible from Genesis to Reve-
lation to prove that in all ages God loved the world; that
He sent prophets and patriarchs and holy men to warn
us, and sent His Son, and after they murdered Him, He
sent the Holy Ghost. I never knew up to that time that
God loved us so much. This heart of mine began to
thaw out, and I could not keep back the tears. It was
like news from a far country. I just drank it in. The
next night there was a great crowd, for the people like
to hear that God loves them. I tell you there is one
thing that draws above everything else in this world, and
that is love. A man that has no one to love him, no
mother, no wife, no children, no brother, no sister, no
one to love him, belongs to that class who commit sui-
cide; he would go down here and jump in the lake.

Well, there was a great crowd Sunday night, and he
said, ' ' My friends, if you will turn in your Bibles to the

LOVE. 259

third chapter of John and the sixteenth verse, you will
find my text," and he preached another most extraordi-
nary sermon from that wonderful verse, " For God so
loved the world that He gave His onlybegotten Son that
whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have
everlasting life." And he went on proving it again from
Genesis to Revelation. He could turn to almost any part of
the Bible and prove it. Well, I thought that was better
than the other one; he struck a higher chord than ever,
and it was sweet to my soul to hear it. The next night —
It is pretty hard to get out a crowd in Chicago on Monday
night, but they came. The women left their washing,
or if they had washed, they came and they brought their
Bibles; and he said, " My friends, if you will turn to the
sixteenth verse of the third chapter of John, you will find
my text,/ and again he followed it out from Genesis to
Revelations, to prove that God loved us, and he just
beat it down into our hearts, and I never have doubted
it since. I used to preach that God was behind the sin-
ner with a double-edged sword ready to hew him down.
I have got done with that; I preach now that God is be-
hind him with love, and he is running away from the
God of love.

Tuesday night came, and we thought surely he had
exhausted that text, and that he would take another,
but he said, "If you will turn to the third chapter of
John and the sixteenth verse, you will find my text, "and
he preached the sixth sermon from that wonderful text,
and that night he struck a higher chord than ever. "God
so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son,
that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but
have " — not going to have when you die, but have it

260 Moody's sermons.

right here, now — " eternal life." By that time we began
to believe it, the whole of us, and we never have doubted it
since; and if a man gets up in that pulpit and utters that
text, there is a smile all over the church to-day. Al-
though years have rolled away; they never have for-
gotten it.

The seventh night came, and he went into the pulpit.
Every eye was upon him. All were anxious to know
what he was going to preach about. He said, "My
friends, I have been hunting all day for a new text, but
I cannot find one as good as the old one; so we will go
back to the third chapter of John and the sixteenth
verse," and he preached the seventh sermon from that
wonderful text. " God so loved the world." I remember
the closing up of that sermon. Said he, " My friends,
for a whole week I have been trying to tell you how much
God loves you, but I cannot do it with this poor, stammer-
ing tongue. * 'If I could borrow Jacob's ladder and climb up
into heaven, and ask Gabriel, who stands in the presence
of the Almighty, if he could tell me how much love the
Father has for the world, all he could say would be, 'God
so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son,
that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but
have eternal life.' "

Since then I have been preaching the love of God, and
I tell you, my friends, God loves you, and He does not
want you to perish.

" Say unto them, as I live, saith the Lord God, I have
no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the
wicked turn from his way and live; turn ye, turn ye from
your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel !"

LOVE. 26l

Drunkard tarn ! Turn from your cups ! Give them up
to-night ! Say, " By the grace of God, I will hurl them
from me. I will live a sober life. " The God of love will, if
needs be, send legions of angels to help you to fight your
way up into the kingdom of God. God has power enough.
What we want is the power of God in our hearts. But
we cannot have a God of love, a pure God, a holy
God in a heart full of vice and crime and sin. We have
got to forsake sin, and God will turn and have mercy up-
on us. "He brought me to the banqueting house, and his
banner over me was love."

There is a story of a man that left England a few
years ago and came to this country. He became dissat-
isfied and went off to Cuba. He had not been in Cuba
very long before the Cuban war broke out in 1867, and
he was arrested as a spy. He knew nothing about what
he was arrested for and could not understand a word of
the Spanish language. They court-martialed him and
ordered him to be shot, and when it was told to him
that he was going to be shot as a spy, the man began to
wake up and sent off to the American and English con-
suls and laid the case before them. He was perfectly in-
nocent. He could not understand a word of the language.
The consuls looked into the case and found he was per-
fectly innocent. They went to the Spanish officers and
said, "Look here, this man you have ordered to be shot,
is not guilty; he is perfectly innocent." But the Span-
ish officers said, "He has been tried by our law and
found guilty; the law must take its course, and the man
must die." There was no submarine cable then, and
they could not telegraph to their governments. They
had no time to write and get an answer back. The

262 Moody's sermons.

morning came. They brought him out to the place of
execution. They had a grave dug, and they put his coffin
beside the grave and the man took his seat upon it, and
they were just pulling the black cap over his head. There
stood the Spanish soldiers, and in a few minutes they
would receive orders to fire, and at that moment who
should ride up but the American and English consuls,
and jumping from the carriage they ran and wrapped the
Star Spangled Banner and the Union Jack around the
man, and turning to the Spanish officer said, ''Fire on
these flags if you dare!" They did not dare. There
were two great governments behind those flags. O my
friends, what are this government and the English-
government compared with the government of heaven !
1 ' He brought me to the banqueting house, and his ban-
ner over me was love." Let God wrap around you the
banner of heaven to-night. Just come under that ban-
ner to-night. God loves you. God wants to bless you.
I can imagine some of you say, ' ' Well, if God loves
me, why does He afflict me so?" He does not chasten
willingly. I don't think we have had the rod unless we
have deserved it. 1 don't think you mothers punish your
children unless they deserve it. They may not under-
stand it at the time. We may not understand all of God's
dealings, but we will by-and-by. Paul's platform Was a
good one, ' ' And we know that all things work together
for good to them that love God." So God gives us af-
fliction now and then that we may know that this is not
our abiding place. We don't belong down here. We
are pilgrims and strangers journeying over the earth, and
our citizenship ought to be up there. If we are living for
God, our hearts will be set upon things above, and not

LOVE. 263

down here. I had a child taken down some time ago
with the scarlet fever. I am afraid of that disease, and I
went to the very best physician I could find in Chicago, and
when he wrote a prescription I went to the best druggist in
Chicago. I didn't go to any of the clerks; I went to the head
man, who was a very careful man, and I watched him. He
took down one bottle and then another, and another,
and he just poured that medicine out into a bottle and
mixed it all up, and it happened to be the very medicine
that child needed. Perhaps any one of the ingredients
alone might have been rank poison and killed the child,
but all worked together for good. So it is a little af-
fliction here and a little prosperity there, all working to-
gether for good to them that love God.

Now, let me say, my friends, if you want that love of
God in your hearts, all you have to do is to open the
door and let it shine in. It will shine in as the sun shines
in a dark room. Let him have full possession of your
hearts. Some people have an idea they have something
to do to bring about reconciliation. God is already rec-
onciled. There is not anything for you to do but to be-
lieve that God is reconciled.

An Englishman was telling me this story, of a father
that had a wandering son, and you know these only sons
are very often spoiled. They are humored and petted.
The result is, their wills are not broken, and if their
wills are not broken, generally some one's heart is broken.
This young man had grown up a very headstrong, will-
ful boy, and he and his father were constantly getting
into trouble. The mother acted as a mediator between
them. One day they got into trouble, and the father got
angry and told the son to leave. The son left and said
he would not come back until his father asked him to come

264 Moody's sermons.

back. The mother tried to bring about a reconciliation.
She wrote to the boy and plead with him to come home.
But in every letter he wrote he said, "I never, never
will come home, until father asks me." She worked with
that father to ask him to come home, but his proud,
stubborn heart said, " No ; I will never ask him back."
For long years that mother tried to bring that father and
son together. It was their only child. But she utterly
failed. And when she lay upon her dying bed, and the
doctors had given her up. to die, that father, standing by
the side of the bed, said to the wife, " Is there not any-
thing that I can do for you?" anxious to gratify her last
wish. ''Yes, there is one thing you can do; you can
send for my boy. I would like to see him before I die,
and I would like to see you and him reconciled. If you
don't love him after I am gone, there will be no one to
look after him." The proud heart revolted. He said,
" I can't send for him." " Yes, you can, if you will. " "I
will send in your name. " ' ' You know he will never come
for me. If that boy ever comes back, you must invite
him. You know he will never yield until you yield.'
The father could stand it no longer, and at last he went
down to the office and sent a dispatch in his own name
asking that boy to come home. The moment he re-
ceived it he started for home. As he went into the room
the mother was sinking rapidly. The father stood by her
bedside. He heard the door open, and saw it was that
boy. Instead of going to the door to meet him, and re-
ceiving him with open arms, he turned and went away
to another part of the room. The mother took her boy's
hand. O, how she had longed to press it! She kissed
him, and kissed him. She then said, "Just speak to your

LOVE, 265

father, and it will all be over. You say the first word."
"No," he said, "I will never speak to him until he
speaks to me." She urged, but in vain. Then calling
her husband to her bedside, she took him in one hand
and the boy in the other, and that dying mother spent
her last moments in trying to bring about a reconciliation,
but she failed. Neither one of them would speak. At
last, she sank away in the arms of death. The husband
looked at the wife and saw she was gone. The boy
looked at the mother and saw she was gone. At last
the fathers eye caught the boy's eye, - and his heart re-
lented. He took that boy to his bosom, and there by
that deathbed they were reconciled.

O, sinner, that is not a fair illustration in this respect.
God is not angry with you, but he sent Christ into the
world, and he died to reconcile the world. With that
exception it is as good an illustration of reconciliation
as you can have. I bring the body of the Son of God,
and I say, Look at Him wounded; Look at Him dying,
that you may be reconciled. Wonderful love! Match-
less love! The world never saw love like that. Will you
spurn such love? Will you trample it under your feet?
I beg of you to-night, be ye reconciled to God. Do not
sleep until you are reconciled. Let this be the night of
your reconciliation. '. ' We beseech you, in Christ's stead,
be ve reconciled to God."

WHERE ART THOU?

"Where art thou?" — Gen. iii, 9.

This was the first question put to man after his fall.
It was not said to a congregation; like this. There were
only two in that congregation, the Lord himself was the
preacher. Satan had been in Eden and had been doing
his work. Adam had been listening to the lies of patan,
and had been tempted and had fallen; and we find God
coming down that very day to seek him out. And this
was a call of love; it was a call of grace; it was a call of
mercy. If God had dealt with him according to his de-
serts, He would have hurled him from the face; of the
earth.

Six thousand years have rolled away since God put
that question to our parents in Eden, but it is a question
in my mind if there have been any of Adam's sons and
daughters that have not heard that question sometime
in their lives. It may be in the silent hours of the night,
it may be while they are busy at work or in the midst of
their pleasure; at some time the question has come steal-
ing home upon them, "Who am I, what am I, and
where am I going? " It has come rolling along down
the ages.

Now, my friends, it is of very little account where you
and I are in the sight of our neighbors, where we are in

266

Satan in Paradise.

WHERE ART THOU ? 269

the sight of the public. It is of very little account what
people around us think of us. They will soon go away.
Their breath is in their nostrils, and God will change
their countenances and send them away by-and-by. But
it is vastly more important to know what God thinks of
us, and where we stand in His sight; and that is the
question I want to press home upon each one. It is a
personal question.

I hope this text will be sent home by the Spirit of God
to each heart here to-night. I hope the oldest and the
youngest person in this house will ask the question,
' ' Where am I ?" Who am I ? What am I, and where
am I going ?

Now, I am going to divide this audience into three
classes. I think we will all come under three heads. I
would like very well if each person would take the por-
tion that belongs to him. Of course I cannot read your
hearts. I want to talk to the professed Christians, to
those who have backslidden, and to those who are
strangers to the grace of God. I want to ask each one,
where art thou ? To all in this audience to-night that
profess to be disciples of Jesus Christ, I would ask,
where art thou? Where is your influence? Who claims
you? Think a moment. You may be a member of
some church. You go to the communion table. You
profess to be disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. But
where is your influence? ' ' He that is not for Me is against
Me." Is your influence felt for Christ in your business?
Is your influence felt in the circle in which you move, in
the fashionable circle, it may be, is your influence felt for
Christ? Where art thou, O professed child of God ?

You know I am one of those that believe we are living

270

in the days of sham. It don't mean anything to be a
Christian now in the estimation of a great many.

I firmly believe to-day that the world is stumbling over
us professed Christians. We are so conformed to the
world that people do not see Christ in us. Many of
them say that Christianity is a myth, that it is a fable, that
it is a thing of the past, that it is not true. Do you know
that where one man reads the Bible a hundred read you
and me? They do not read the Bible. I would to God
they did! They do not look to your Master and mine,
but they look to us; and that is what Christ meant when
He said, " Ye are the salt of the earth; ye are the light
of the world. Ye are my witnesses. I leave you down
here to testify for Me." As I heard some one say the
other day, ' 'If our Master represents us up in heaven as we
represent Him down here, we would have a very poor
representative, wouldn't we?" Ah, how we misrepre-
sent Him down here! How unlike Christ we are! Mr.
Sankey and myself went into a place in this country not
long ago, and there was a lady there that had a son, and
she said, ' ' I am not going to have that boy of mine under
the influence of these meetings." She was a wealthy
lady, a lady of position. She wanted her boy to move
in fashionable society, and she was afraid he might be
converted, and taken out of that society. I believe when
a man is truly born of God, he has lost his taste for that
kind of society. A godless, Christless, fashionable world
is the thing that the true child of God abominates. She
said, " I will take him out of town." The day we went
into town she went out with her only child. We were
thirty days in that city, and the afternoon we had our
farewell meeting I missed one of the prominent ministers

WHERE ART THOU? 27 1

that had stood by my side, and just as I was closing up
and leaving the building he came and said, " I am sorry
that I could not be here at your last meeting, Mr.
Moody. I want you to understand it is no want of in-
terest, but," said he, " I have had a very solemn duty
to perform." Then he went on and told me that that
mother who had taken her son out of that city had
brought him back there that day in his coffin, and he had
just attended the funeral, and while we were closing ur,
our work there that mother was there laying away hi-,
only child. And she a professed Christian!

My dear friends, do you know that we have a great
many of those people to-day that profess to be children
of God, and yet stand right in the way of their children
coming into the kingdom of God?

A friend of mine was talking to a young man some time
ago about his soul. The young man turned up his nose,
and threw up his head, and said, " Christianity is all a
farce." " Why, " said my friend, "are you in earnest?"
"Yes," said he, "I believe that Christians are hypo-
crites." He knew that he had a mother that professed
to be a Christian, and he said, "You would not call
your own mother a hypocrite, would you? " " No, sir, I
would not; that would sound very disrespectful. But I
will say that my mother don't believe what she professes.
If my mother did, don't you think she would talk to me
about my soul? My mother never got down and prayed
with me. If my mother believes what she professes,
don't you think she would be concerned about my
eternal welfare? " I tell you there is no reality in it.
And that young man had reason to think so.

O professed child of God, where is your influence in

272 MOODY S SERMONS.

your family? While you are sitting in this building to-
night, where is your boy? Can you tell? Where is that
daughter of yours? Is she growing up to hate Chris-
tianity? Is that young man growing up to despise your
God? If he is, I think the fault lies not with God but
with ourselves. There is one thing that I have been
more anxious for than anything else, that my children
should have confidence in my piety. What we want at
this present time, I think, is more piety in our homes;
more of Christ in our daily life. We want to carry this
blessed religion of Jesus Christ into every-day life, into
our daily walk and conversation.

I saw an account some time ago going through the
press that made an impression upon my mind, of a father
that took his little child out one day into the field.
While he was lying down under a shade tree, the little
child was picking wild flowers and little blades of grass,
and carrying them to its father, and saying, in its child-
like way, " Pretty, pretty." The father fell asleep, and,
while he slept, the little child wandered away. When
he awoke from his sleep, he looked all about him for his
child, and lifted up his voice and shouted, but all he
could hear was the echo of his own voice. Going to a
precipice some ways off he looked down, and there up-
on the rocks and briars he saw the mangled form of his
little child. He rushed to it, took up its lifeless corpse,
pressed it to his heart and accused himself of being the
murderer of his own child.

O, how many are sleeping in the church of God to-
day while their children are falling over worse precipices
than that! O, let me press the question home upon every
professed child of God here to-night! In the sight of
God, where are you?

WHERE ART THOU ? 273

But there is another class I want to speak to, that is
the backslider. Now, I will venture to say in this con-
gregation there are scores, may be hundreds, of men and
women that once knew the Lord; that were once in fel-
lowship with Him; once delighted to go to the house of
the Lord and sit down at the communion table; once had
a family altar; once delighted to be with His people. All
that' is gone now. Perhaps I can tell you how you got
away from Him. It may be that you were converted
down here in some little town in this state and identi-
fied yourself with the church there. You knew every
one that belonged to the church; they knew you and
helped you. At last perhaps your business brought you
to this city, and you were among strangers. You went
into this and that church, and they did not seem exactly
like the churches in the country. There was no one to
shake hands with you or take any interest in you; and
you began to think you didn't like the Christians here in
this city. They were not so warm-hearted as they were
down in the country where you came from. You can't
find a church like that where you were converted. The
trouble was, you went to the churches, but didn't make
yourself known. You didn't tell them who you were,
and where you came from. If you had done that, they
would have gathered around you and took your hand and
given you a warm welcome. You went to the public ser-
vices; no one spoke to you, and you thought they were
very cold. I have always noticed when a man is him-
self cooling off he always thinks other people are cooling
off likewise. When he is cold he thinks every one else
is cold. Before you came to this city you had a family
altar. You prayed to the Father to protect you from

274 MOODY S SERMONS.

sin; but the family altar has been broken down. O
backslider, I want to ask you to-night, where art thou?
If God should summon you into eternity what would be-
come of your children?

I never saw a man that could give a reason for leav-
ing the Lord. A backslider is one who has backslidden
from the Lord. It is not backsliding from the church,
because the church don't save us.

In the second chapter of Jeremiah the prophet is
pleading with Israel. They had backslidden. They had
gone away from the God of Moses. They had gone
away from the God of Abraham, of Isaac and Jacob.
They turned away to the gods of the nations around
them. Here is a prophet raised up by God to plead
with them, and woo them back to the fold they had wan-
dered from. Now, backslider, listen; this is for you.
"Thus saith the Lord, what iniquity have your fathers
found in Me, that they are gone far from Me, and have
walked after vanity, and are become vain ?" What has
the Lord done to you? Can you find any iniquity in
Him? He is unchangeable. He has been in all these
years the same true and best friend you have had.
" Wherefore I will yet plead with you, saith the Lord,
and with your children's children will I plaad. For my
people have committed two evils. They have forsaken
Me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out
cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water. Can a
maid forget her ornkments, or a bride her attire? Yet my
people have forgotten Me days without number." You
do not forget those diamond rings. If you lost a dia-
mond to-night, you would be around here to-morrow
morning early searching for it diligently. Think of your

WHERE ART THOU ? 275

soul. It is worth more than the world. See what He
tells Jeremiah to tell them ''Go and proclaim these
words toward the north, and say, Return, thou backsliding
Israel, saith the Lord; and I will not cause mine anger
to fall upon you, for I am merciful, saith the Lord, and
I will not keep anger forever. Only acknowledge thine
iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the Lord
thy God, and hast scattered thy ways to the strangers
under every green tree, and ye have not obeyed my voice,
saith the Lord. Turn, O backsliding children, saith the
Lord, for I am married unto you." Think of the Lord
Almighty using such an illustration. It shows what love
He has for the backslider. I want to say to the back-
slider to-night there is one thing you haven't lost. You
have not lost the love of God; He loves you still. You
have gone so far you have lost the benefit of it, but He
loves you still. The most touching, most tender and
most loving words in Scripture are words that have been
sent to the backslider.

O backslider, hear the voice of the Shepherd this night
calling to you from the dark mountains of sin, and say-
ing as the prodigal did, "I will arise, and go to my
father." You know Peter backslided. He denied the
Lord. I will tell you what won him back. It was the
loving look of his Master. It broke his heart when
Christ turned and looked at him. O, may the tender,
loving look of Christ fall upon your heart to-night, sin-
ner, and may you go out and weep bitterly, as Peter
did.

Now, if you listen to what I tell you, and carry out
my instructions, you will never backslide. Treat the Lord
Jesus Christ as you do any other friend. If you have an

276 Moody's sermons.

intimate friend in this city, and were going away, you
would not think of going without bidding him good-by.
Did you ever hear of a backslider bidding the Lord Jesus
Christ good-by when he went away! Did you ever
hear of a backslider going into his closet, closing the
door, and getting down on his knees, and saying to the
Lord Jesus Christ, ' ' I have now been with you these ten
years; I have been serving you, but I have got tired of
the service and want to go back to the world. I am
craving for the fleshpots of Egypt. I will have to go
now; Lord Jesus, I bid you good-by. Farewell, I am
never going to call on you again." Did you ever hear
of a backslider leaving the Lord in that way? Never.
You run away. You desert Him. There is one peculiar-
ity about the backslider's ditch; you have to get out
the way you got in. How did you get in? You ran
away. Now, just get out the way you got in. Go into
your closet and lock the door. " Only acknowledge
thine iniquity," He says. Just confess your sins, and He
is just and faithful to forgive us our sins.

O, may the backslider be brought home to-night. It
would be a terrible thing if you should die in your back-
sliding state.

Now, to the third class I want to speak. You may
find a good many flaws- in our characters, a great many
things that are not right. I admit that professed Chris-
tians are not what they . ought to be. I want to ask
every unsaved man, " Where art thou ?" As Christ said
to Peter when he asked the Lord what John should do,
11 What is that to thee? Follow thou Me." We do not
ask you to follow us. If we did, you might bring up
these excuses. We came here to preach Christ. We

WHERE ART THOU ? 277

invite you to Him. You cannot find fault with Him.
For eighteen hundred years the devil and man have
been trying to find a flaw in Christ's character. Thank
God, they can't do it. He is a lamb without spot or
blemish. We do not ask you to-night to follow us, but
follow Him.

If the righteous are scarcely saved, where shall the
sinner and the ungodly appear? I want to say to you
men that are hiding behind the failings of us Christians,
you have got very poor stuff to feed on. You never
heard of a soul getting veryfat on that kind of food. So
I want to ask every unsaved woman and every unsaved
man in this hall to-night, "Where art thou?" Just
think a little while now. Ask yourself, "Where am I,
what am I, and where am I going ?"

I am a man in what is called middle life, and the last
four or five years have been the most solemn years of
my life. Life does not seem like a fiction now. Life
seems real to me. I have got up, you might say, on the
top of a hill, for life is like a man going up hill and then
down. Threescore years and ten is the time allotted to
man. There is one here and there that is living on bor-
rowed time. A great many are taken away before they
get to the top of the hill. Men do not average three-
score and ten. As I look upon this assembly to-night, I
would like to ask every man and woman on the top of
the hill, or you that have just passed over it, as I have,
to just pause with me on the top of the hill and look
around; forget all about things around you, and just
think, "Where am I in the sight of God?" As we
stand on the top of the hill of life let us look back on the
cradle from whence we came; let us look down the hill

278 Moody's sermons.

.-r »■

fe Perhaps, as you look down part way, you will
se- ?. grave. The grass is growing upon it to-night. It
may be that some flowers have been planted on that
grave. It marks the last resting-place of a loved mother.
Let your mind go back to the night you bid her farewell.
It ~v- s, perhaps, at the midnight hour that she called you
to >a ■ r bedside, and then she took you by the hand, and
that night you promised you would meet her in the king-
dom of God. You told her you would be a Christian,
and follow her into that land where she was going.

I would like to know how many in this audience to-
night have made vows. Won't you, to-night, pay your
vows? Long years have rolled away since you made
that promise. You promised yourself you would settle
the question then, but you did not. Then you said,
" Well, I will do it a little further on." That time has
come again, and you have not done it.

I may be talking to some that made a promise in their
childhood that they would become Christians. Child-
hood is gone, and you are now not only in manhood, but
you are passing over that hill. A sermon that would
move you to tears ten years ago makes no impression on
you now. Time has rolled on. Here and there you see
a gray hair in your head. Your eyes are growing dim.
Come back with me, my friend, and as we look down the
hill again we may see a little short grave. It marks the
resting-place of a loved child. The night death came
into your home and took away that child, don't you re-
member that then you made a vow that you would see
your child again in the kingdom of God? O my dear
friends, won't you to-night make good that promise be-
fore you sleep, and let the news go up on high that you
are coming up there?

WHERE ART THOU ? 279

Last night a fine-looking young man came upon this
platform. He had been a skeptic. He was inclined to
believe that the Bible was a myth. But he had a godly
sister who believed in that book. She used to pray for
him. A fews days ago that sister died. Then his infidel-
ity did not comfort him. Ah, how cold infidelity is in
the time of affliction, when we stand by the open grave
of a loved friend! Ah, atheism don't comfort us then!
Infidelity don't comfort us then!

That young man wants something besides skepticism
now. He wants something besides cold, hard infidelity
now. That loving sister has passed within the veil.
He wants to go and meet her. He has stood by that
grave, and dropped tears upon it. While I am standing
in this house talking, I will venture to say his mind is
upon that sister, and he says, "I want to meet her."
Well, young man, you can. Christ says, " I go to pre-
pare a mansion." He is up there fitting up the mansions,
and by-and-by you shall meet the loved one with the
Master, and be forever with Him. Thank God for the
glorious gospel of Jesus Christ. It is downright mad-
ness, it is the height of folly for a man to turn a deaf ear
to the gospel of the Son of God. Come again, and stand
on top of this hill, and look down on the grave. It is
very short after all from the cradle to the grave. Look
down the hill of life to-night. It may be that the shroud
is already woven that shall be wrapped around these
bodies. It may be the coffin is already made that you
and I shall be laid in. It may be that while I am talking
here to-night death may be on your track; we know it
is on the track of each one of us, and it may be a good
deal nearer than you think; and the time may come a

28o MOODY'S SERMONS.

great deal sooner than you expect that you shall be cut
down; and if you die without God, without hope, what
excuse will you have? Here you are in a Christian land
where you hear the gospel preached. You are invited
to come to the gospel feast. Here is another invitation.
What will you do with it? O my friends, to-night be
wise and accept of salvation as a gift from Him who
came into the world to bring life and immortality and
light.

When I was in England, in 1867, there was a young
French nobleman came to consult Dr. Fox Winslow,
that celebrated doctor that had a great deal of expe-
rience and practice with the human mind. He brought
letters from the French Emperor, Napoleon III, and the
great leading men in Paris, asking the doctor to do all
he could to save the man's reason. When the doctor
examined him he found the man was troubled about
something; had great trouble that was weighing upon his
mind, and he went to work to find out the cause. He
says, "Can you tell me what is weighing upon your
mind? What is the trouble?" The young nobleman
said that he could not tell. "Well," says the doctor,
' ' I must first find out the cause of this disease, before I
can do anything." Says he, " Have you lost any friends?"
"No, sir; none lately." " Have you lost any property?"
" No, sir." " Have you lost any reputation or standing
in your country?" "No, sir." "Well, sir, I want to have
you tell me what it is that is weighing upon your mind."
The young nobleman hung his head as if he was ashamed
to tell, and at last he says, "Well, doctor, my father
was an infidel, and my grandfather was an infidel, and I
have been brought up an infidel, and for the last two

WHERE ART THOU? 28 1

years this question has haunted me day and night,
" Eternity, and where shall I spend it? I try to get to
sleep at night, and if I sleep an hour or two, and I wake
up, that question comes up to me, ' Eternity, and where
shall I spend it?'" "Well," the doctor says, " you have
come to the wrong physician." The young nobleman
sprung to his feet and says, "Doctor, is there no help
for me? Have I got to be haunted day and night with
this question? Can't you help me? " The doctor says,
"I cannot help you, but I can tell you of a physician
who can;" and the doctor went on to tell his own expe-
rience; he said that he was once an infidel and had been
blessed by reading the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah, and
he commenced to read that wonderful chapter. " He was
wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our
iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him;
and with His stripes we are healed." He gave him the
remedy for sin. He held up a crucified Savior, and the
young nobleman said, "Doctor, do you really believe
that Jesus Christ was in heaven, and that He voluntarily
left heaven and came down here, and suffered and died
for this world?" " Yes," says the doctor, "I believe it,
and by believing that I got rid of my infidelity, and by
believing that I got rid of my sins," says he; "and I
have no doubt about where I am going to spend eternity.
It is all clear in my mind." "Well," says the nobleman,
"if that is true, I ought to believe it." "Well," says
the doctor, I don't want you to believe it unless it is true.
There is a way of finding out whether it is true or not.
Let us get down and ask the God that created us to
teach us if it is true." And down the doctor went, and
he prayed for the nobleman, and he asked the noble-

282 MOODY'S SERMONS.

man to pray for himself. He went back to the doctor
day after day for about ten days or two weeks, and then
went back to Paris as a Christian man, and when I was
there in 1867, he was writing back to the doctor as one
Christian writes to another. He had got that question
settled.

Young man, I would like to ask you to-night, where
will you spend eternity? That is the question to-night.
We are free agents. God allows us to choose. He has
set before you life and death. He set before you a bless-
ing and a curse, and it is for you to choose. Where will
you spend eternity? Will you spend it with Christ in
yonder world of light? Will you spend it in those man-
sions He has gone to prepare for you, with that sainted,
godly mother, with that praying, godly wife? Will you
spend it with that lovely child that has gone on high?
Ah, my friends, it is in your power. You can settle this
question to-night; or will you be banished from God and
heaven? I want to give you one word that the Son
Jesus said, " If ye die in your sins, where I am ye can-
not come." Away with this doctrine that a man is going
into heaven with all the sins of life upon him, a man
that is polluted with sin, a man that has fought against
God all his life. Why, heaven would be hell to him.

Yes, my friends, if you ever see that kingdom, you
must believe on His Son. Say, skeptic, what are you
going to do? Are you going on in your infidelity? Are
you going to hold on to unbelief and die in your sins,
and be banished from God, and from heaven; or will you
this night believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved?

The Sermon on the Mount. Matthew, v, 1,2.

"WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST?"

What think ye of Christ? — Matt, xxii, 42.

I would like, if possible, just to hold your attention
right to that one question for a little while, forgetting
everything else. It is not what you think of the Bible.
It is not what you think of this denomination or that de-
nomination. It is not what you think of the church. It
is not what you think of this preacher or that preacher,
but "What think ye of Christ ?"

I would like to have time to take Him up to-night as a
teacher; the most wonderful teacher that ever came into
this world. No man taught as He did. He did not
teach like the Scribes and Pharisees. He taught as one
who had authority. But that is not the object to-night.

I would like to have time to take Him up as a preacher.
You talk about your great preachers, but this world
never saw such a preacher as He was. He stood at the
head of the list. There never has been, there never will
be, another one like Him. Very often ministers preach
their opinions. He taught no opinions. He taught the
truth, and it was so deep that the greatest theologians
have not been able to fathom the depths of His teach-
ing; and yet they were so simple and so beautiful that
the little children understood them, and they liked to
hear Him. In fact, there is not a book in the world now
that will interest the children like the Bible. If you

285

286 Moody's sermons.

want a book that is fall of beautiful stories for the chil-
dren, that is the book.

And He had a faculty of teaching and preaching the
truth so that men could not forget it. There is not a
prodigal on the face of this continent, in my opinion,
that is not familiar with the fifteenth chapter of Luke.
He drew that picture so vivid and so clear that men
cannot forget it. They know about that younger son-
they know about that far country. I seldom talk with
a prodigal that he don't refer to it. We can never for^
get that story of the good Samaritan. It kind of hooks
into your memory. You can't get it out if you try.

I am told by eastern travelers who have been through
Palestine that there is not a solitary thing you can see
there but that the Lord used it as an illustration — hung
the truth right about it. The first parable that he uttered
was that of the sower. I can imagine that, as He was
teaching there upon the hillside, He looked down, and
upon the bank of that lake was a sower going forth in
the spring to sow, and He said, " Behold a sower! " and
he drew a lesson that you cannot forget. There are four
kinds of hearers. We have had them here in this city
for the last four weeks, and they will remain till the end
of the time. There are the wayside, the stony-ground,
the thorny-ground, and the good ground hearers. Would
to God there were more good-ground hearers, that should
bring forth thirty, sixty and a hundred fold. Those four
kinds of hearers will remain. He taught the truth. Men
cannot get around it. They may say there are not four
kinds of hearers, but that don't make it so; and any man
that talks much to the public and mingles much with
them will find those kind of hearers. Many a man has

WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST? 287

been in this tabernacle, and the devil has been out-
side and caught the seed away before he could get home,
and before he could cross the street. He thought when
he left the tabernacle that he would step over and let
some one talk with him. Before he got over there the
devil caught him.

I would like to talk to you about Him as a physician.
Why, they say they have got some wonderful physicians
in New York, in London and in Paris. Their fame is
known throughout all the country. But did you ever
hear of a doctor that never lost a case? They say you
have some very fine doctors here in this city, but have
you got one that never lost a case? He never lost a case.
He had some pretty difficult cases, but He was a match
for every case that came. Even if they were dead when.
He got there, they lived. He never preached any fu-
neral sermons. A dead body would come to life when
He came.

I would like to have time to take Him up as a com-
forter. As some one has said, he wiped away more tears
in one day than all the infidels in eighteen hundred
years. He has bound up more aching hearts, He has
comforted more people, than all the infidels put together
have ever done. He came for that purpose. "He sent
me," He says, "to heal the broken-hearted." That is
what He came for.

I have not come here to-night to take Him up as a
prophet; not to speak to you about Him as a Priest,
or as a king. I have not come here to talk to you
about Him as a preacher and a teacher, or as a phy-
sician, or as a comforter. That is not the point to-
night, I have got another point in view, and the point

288 Moody's sermons.

I want to call your attention to is this. Who was He?
Was He what He claimed to be or not?

Now, I am one of those that contend that Jesus Christ
was either God-man — He was both human and divine —
or else He was a great imposter, and He passed Himself
off to be more than He was. Now, you and I have great
contempt for a man that is assuming to be more than he
is. If a man tries to make you believe that he is a greater
man than he is, he goes right down in your estimation
at once.

Now, to-night I want to ask you to settle this question
in your minds. Was he God-man? Was He with God
the Father before the world existed? He said He was.
Before the world existed, He existed — before the morn-
ing stars sang together. "Before Abraham was, I am."
Now, it is a very important question. It is one of the
most important questions that can come before us down
here in this world. We will not know how to treat
Christ if we have not made up our minds who and what
He is. I was talking to a man not many hours ago, and
he said it made no difference what he thought of Jesus
Christ. I was pressing that point upon him. It makes
all the difference in the world what we think of Him. It
is of very little account what you think of General Grant.
It is of very little account what you think of the public
men of this country to-day. It is of very little account
what you think of Queen Victoria. It is of very little,
account what you think of the emperors and rulers
of other nations. It is of little account what we think of
other men in comparison with what we think of Jesus
Christ. This is the question; and I believe it is a
proper question. I think I have a right as a preacher of

WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST? 289

the gospel to press this question home upon my audience;
and I want those young men up in the gallery, I want
every person in the house to-night, just to put the ques-
tion home to himself. "What do I think of Christ?
What is my opinion of Him? " We are very free to ex-
press our opinion about public men. There is hardly a
person in this house that has not made up his mind about
the public men of this nation. Jesus Christ is a public
character, and we have a right to ask you what you think
of Him. There has been more written and more said
about Jesus of Nazareth in your day and mine than of any
hundred men that ever lived; and it is time for us to make
up our minds what we think of Him. Was He an im-
poster ? Was He what the Jews claimed Him to be —
a deceiver and a fraud? Or was He God-man?

I am thoroughly convinced that men have got to take one
side or the other. This idea that Jesus Christ was a very
good man as some people tell us, but He was only man, is
false. It seems to me you could not utter a greater false-
hood than that. If Jesus Christ were mere man, then he
has been guilty of one of the worst sins in the whole Bible.
All through the Bible God has said, "Thou shalt have
no other gods before Me." Christ comes and says, "Come
unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will
give you rest." He invites the world to come to Him.
Not only that, but He tells us that we cannot come
to the Father except through Him and by Him. " I
am the way." " I am the truth." "I am the life." "I
am the resurrection and the life." That is what he says.
Now, if that is not true, then he was an imposter,
and if He was an imposter, the Jews ought to have put
him to death. By their Jewish law, they were obliged

29O MOODY S SERMONS.

to put Him to death; and we either ought to ratify the
act of Calvary and say they did right, or else we ought
to come out and own Him as our Lord and our Master.

But to-night I am going to ask you all to imagine you
are on a jury. Perhaps some of you ladies will say, " I
never was in a jury box in my life." I suppose you never
were, and perhaps there are a good many men here that
never were in a court on a jury; but to-night I would
like to have every one of you just keep awake and keep
your mind right on the case we have before us. Let us
examine a few witnesses and make up our minds on their
testimony. If a man has a case in court he brings in the
witnesses. Both sides are brought in, and after they
have heard the testimony on both sides, the jury make
up their minds.

Now, to-night I want to call in the witnesses, and we
will just imagine that this is the witness-box right here.
Now, you knowr the worst enemies that Jesus Christ had
while he was down there were the Pharisees and the
Sadducees. They were constantly trying to entangle
Him. They were constantly trying to find something
against Him that they might put Him to death. They
made one attack after another, and they failed. The
most serious charge they could bring against Him was
this. " This man receiveth sinners and eateth with them."
That is what we glory in. It is a good thing He does.
That takes us in.

But we will not take the public. We will just take up
the individuals. Now, Caiaphas was president of the
highest ecclesiastical court of that day. There was nc
higher tribunal. He really sat in the place of Aaron.
Jesus Christ was brought before Caiaphas. It is Caiaphas

WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST? 29 1

that gave sentence of death. It was he that gave orders
that Christ should be crucified. Now, suppose to-night
we could bring that priest in here with his flowing robes
upon him. Let him stand here, and let us ask him what
he found against Jesus Christ. Let us ask him what
Christ was guilty of, and let us hear what he says. He
it was that put Jesus Christ under oath. You know if a
man goes into court now, they make him hold up his
right hand and solemnly swear that he will tell the truth,
the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Well, he
put Christ under oath. After the witnesses had come in
and testified, then he put Him under oath. "I adjure
thee, by the living God, tell us plainly, art thou the
Christ, the Son of the Blessed?" Christ said, "lam,
and ye shall see Me at the right hand of God, and com-
ing in the clouds of heaven." " What further testimony
do we want?" says Caiaphas. ' 'We have heard blasphemy
from His own lips." And he took his mantle and rent it,
and said to the Sanhedrim, "What think ye?" and they
said, ' ' He is guilty, of death. " If Jesus Christ was not God-
man, then they ought to have put Him to death, because
there in that council He said, " I am," when the'question
was put to Him, and He was under oath. It was that
very thing that caused Him to be put to death. It was
His own testimony. He bore testimony to that very
point — that He was God-man; that He had come from
heaven, and they should see Him at the right hand of
God, and coming in the clouds of heaven.

But we have a good many witnesses to examine, and
I have to pass on. The next witness we want to bring
into court is Pilate. Pilate was no Jew. He was preju-
diced really against the Jews. He was put there by the

292 Moody's sermons.

Roman government to keep peace in that city. Now,
let us bring Pilate in here and examine him. The Jews
brought Jesus before Pilate, and Pilate examined Him.
And now hear what Pilate had to say after examining
Him and talking with Him. This is his testimony: " I
find no fault in Him." If there could have been a flaw
found in His character, do you think the Jews would not
have found Him out and told Pilate? Do you think that
Pilate would not have found it out in that bloodthirsty
city? If there had been something wrong in His character;
if He had been a fraud; if He had been a deceiver, do
you think they would not have found it out? " I find no
fault in this man. I will chastise Him and let Him go."
"If you let Him go, you are not Caesar's friend." Poor,
vacillating Pilate. He did not have the moral stamina
to live up to his conscience. He sent Him away to
Herod, and Herod could find no fault in Him.

But we have another witness, a lady. We will bring
in Pilate's wife. We have her testimony on record. She
sent word to her husband, and this was her testimony:
"Have thou nothing to do with that just man, fori
have suffered many things this day in a dream because of
Him." People talk against Pilate now, but there have
been a good deal worse than Pilate right here in this
city. They can find fault with Jesus Christ, but Pilate,
that heathen governor, could find no fault with him.
Pilate's wife could find no fault with Him.

But here is another witness. Now, you know, Judas
knew a good deal more about Jesus Christ than these
witnesses that we have had in the witness box. Judas
knew a good deal more about Jesus Christ than Cai-
aphas did. Perhaps Caiaphas never met him but once,.

WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST? 20,3

and that on that memorable night when he was on trial.
Pilate probably had never met him until he was brought
before him. Pilate's wife perhaps never had seen him.
But Judas had been with him for three years. He had
heard those wonderful sermons. He had heard those
wonderful parables uttered by Him. He had seen Him
perform those mighty miracles. He was with Him when
Lazarus came forth. He was with Him on all occasions
nearly when He performed those wonderful miracles.
Now, let Judas come in. He has sold Him for thirty
pieces of silver. If there is anything against Christ he
will certainly know it. Look at him ! Look at the re-
morse ! Look at the despair that has settled up on his
countenance. Let him step into the witness box. "Come
now, Judas, tell us what think you of Christ ? You have
been with Him for three years; you have been associated
with Him; you have been the treasurer of that little band.
What think you of Christ? " Hear him, as he throws
down those thirty pieces of silver, " I have betrayed in-
nocent blood." Even the very prince of traitors knew
that Christ was innocent. That is what Judas thought
of Him. Men sit in judgment on Judas now; but how
many men will say that Christ was not what He claimed
to be. Judas knew it. "I have betrayed innocent
blood." That is his testimony.

It is a very singular thing that every man that had any-
thing to do with the death of Jesus Christ left his testi-
mony. God made every one of them testify that His
Son was innocent. Not one of them was permitted to
speak against that Son. Their testimony has been put
on record, and preserved and handed down to the pres-
ent time.

294 Moody's sermons.

Now, you know, if there is a criminal in this county
that is to be executed, the sheriff has charge of the exe-
cution. The next witness that we want to bring in is
not a man that bore the name of sheriff, but really the
man that held the same position that day, the centurion
who had charge of the execution. He was there at Cal-
vary, and it was he that gave orders that those nails
should be driven into His hands and His feet. It was he
that gave orders that those soldiers should take that cross
up and let it fall into that hole that had been dug.

Now, let the centurion be brought in here. Let him
stand here in the witness-box. " Come, now, centurion,
you had charge of that execution. You saw Jesus nailed
to the cross. You saw Him hanging between heaven and
earth. What think you of that person? What think
you of Jesus of Nazareth?" " Truly this was the Son of
God. " That is what he says. He was convinced right
then and there. That is what the sheriff said. Never
was there such a scene on earth as that witnessed there
at the cross, when Jesus cried with a loud voice, "It is
finished, " and heaven took up the cry, and the rocks were
rent, and the earth shook. The earth knew its Creator,
although man did not, and the centurion was obliged to
say, "Truly, this was the Son of God."

But I have other witnesses. Do you know that the
testimony of the devils is on record? They bear testimony.
It has been put on record, and it has been kept on record
for us. "Thou Son of the most high God, hast Thou
come here to torment us before our time? " Even the
very devils knew Him. And yet men don't know Him;
yet men don't think well of Him; and there are men
go.ng up and down this nation talking against this Jesus,
with all this testimony on record.

Now, these were not friends of Jesus. These witnesses

WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST? 295

that we have been examining were men that lifted up
their voices against Him. They were the bitterest ene-
mies that He had.

But now we will bring in His friends. You know, if
you want to get the truth of the case, you want to hear
both sides. We have heard the side of the enemies of
Christ; and we have tried to be fair. We have brought
in all their testimony that we can find. We challenge
any skeptic or infidel to bring in any more testimony.
Bring in your witnesses. Let them come and testify
against the Son of God, if you can find them.

"There was a man sent from God." That is the way
it begins. I like that. He was sent to introduce this
Christ. He was no fanatic, and he was not biased by
the world. The world had no power over him. Flat-
tery did not have any weight with him. Position did
not have any weight with Him. If he had been
living now you would not find him up here on your fine
avenues. He was one of the poorest of the poor. His
food was that of locusts and wild honey. He did not
wear a broadcloth coat. His coat was made of camel's
skin, and he wore a leather girdle. But he came out on
the banks of the Jordan and began to cry to that nation,
"Repent, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand! "
And the nation began to be moved. Strange rumors
went from town to town about this wonderful wilderness
preacher, and thousands began to crowd to the banks of
the Jordan to see him. What must have thrilled the
audiences was that he said that he was just the forerun-
ner of a coming One. One whose shoe's latchet he was
unworthy to unloose. He was just the herald of a com-
ing One. At last Jesus of Nazareth, the village carpen-
ter, came down to the banks of the Jordan, and when

2g6 Moody's sermons.

John saw Him, he seemed to quail before him. He drew
back and refused to baptize him. But the Lord com-
manded him, and he knew nothing but obedience, he did
what the Lord told him; and from that hour John, that
mighty preacher, changed his text, and he had but one
text after that, "Behold the Lamb of God that taketh
away the sin of the world! " That was his cry. That is
what he thought of Him. John was just a mere guide-
post, pointing toward Him. He turned his disciples
away from himself, and turned them.toward this Galilean
Prophet. "Behold the Lamb of God!" In another
place he says, "I bear record this is the Son of God."
"I must decrease, but He must increase." He began
to preach down himself and preach up this wonderful
Christ. It would take a long time to tell you what John
thought of Him. I cannot examine this witness as I
would like to. It would take all night. I am afraid
you would get weary.

We will pass over and take up another. Bring in
Peter. We could not have a better witness, perhaps,
than Peter. Peter denied Him. Put Peter in the wit-
ness-box, and say, "Well, Peter, you once denied this
Christ and said you did not know Him. You swore that
you never knew Him. Was that so, Peter? " I can see the
tears trickling down his cheeks. "That is the greatest
lie I ever told in my life. Know Him ! I think I do
know Him." "What do you think of Him? What is
your opinion of this Christ?" "God hath made this
same Jesus whom ye have crucified both Lord and
Christ." That is what he thought of Him. As he
stood there on the day of Pentecost that was his tes-
timony.

WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST? 297

One day, Christ seemed to be just hungering and
thirsting for some one to confess Him, and He said to
his disciples around Him, ''Who do men say that I, the
Son of Man, am?" "Some say you are Moses; some
say you are Jeremiah; some say this prophet, some that
prophet." "But who do you say I am?" "Thou art
the Son of the living God," says Peter. " Blessed art
thou, Simon Bar-jona; flesh and blood never revealed
that unto thee." Peter knew Him. So when he preached
on the day of Pentecost, he called Him the Christ. "God
hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified,
both Lord and Christ." "There is none other name
under heaven given among men, whereby we must be
saved."

But let us call in that thief now. He was a notorious
character. They punished only the most notable crimi-
nals by the death of the cross. That thief is a good wit-
ness. Let us bring him in. We are told by Matthew
and Mark that those two thieves, when they went out
that morning, from the prison to the cross, went out re-
viling, and when the crowd began to mock Christ, it
says, the two thieves also " cast it in his teeth." They,
too, mocked. But all at once a strange thing takes place
there. The heart of one of these thieves seemed to be
touched. I don't know what touched him, but I can
imagine it was Christ's prayer, "Father, forgive them,
for they know not what they do." That thief says, " He
has a different spirit from what I have. He must be
more than human. That must be the cry of the God-
man." He seems to have been convicted right there.
Hear what he says: " We indeed suffer justly, but this

298 Moody's sermons.

man hath done nothing amiss." That is what the thief
thought of him.

But here is Thomas. Thomas has a good many rep-
resentatives to-day. He has a good many descendants
living here in this city. Thomas belonged to the doubt-
ing school. There are a great many people like Thomas.

They doubt what they cannot see. They can't take
things by faith. After the Lord had arisen, Thomas,
like a good many people now, did not believe He had
arisen, and, I will venture to say, Thomas was the most
unhappy man in Jerusalem the first week after Christ
came out of the sepulcher. The first Sunday when He
appeared to his disciples, Thomas was not there. They
had a little prayer-meeting, and he was missing. Per-
haps he thought the whole thing was over, and that they
would never hear of Him again, that He would never rise
from Joseph's sepulcher. But I can imagine Monday
morning, as Thomas goes walking down the street, whom
should he meet but John? John says, " Thomas, have
you heard the news ?" ' ' What news ?" ' ' The Lord is
risen." " O," says he, "I don't believe that. His
spirit may have risen, but His body is not." "O, yes;
His body is. Why I saw Him last night, and I talked
with Him." " O, no; you must be mistaken; it must
have been a vision." " No, it was the identical Jesus;
I talked with Him." " O, I can't believe that."

Thomas starts down the street and has not got more
than half a block before he meets Peter, and Peter says,
"Thomas, the Lord has risen indeed." " O, no; John
just told me back here He had risen, but I don't believe
a word of it." "Well," says Peter, "but I had an inter-
view with Him. He has forgiven me all my backslid-

WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST? 299

ings." " O, well, you just imagine you saw Him. You
must be mistaken. I don't believe He is risen at all."
"Well, but we went to the sepulcher, and it is empty.
And there were two angels there, and they said, ' Come
and see the place where the Lord lay,' and they said He
had risen, and then afterwards we saw Him." " O, well,
I couldn't believe that. I couldn't believe it unless I shall
see the prints of the nails in His hands, and put my fin-
gers in them, and thrust my hand into His side." Before
the week is over he has met more than a dozen who have
seen Christ, but he will not believe them.

The church is full of Thomases to-day. They stay
away from the prayer-meeting, where Christ meets His
disciples, and they go out into the world and live among
skeptics and infidels so much that they doubt everything
from one end of the Bible to the other.

But the next Sabbath came, and Thomas was there
that day; and while they were talking, and perhaps try-
ing to convince Thomas that the Lord had risen, who
should stand there but the Lord of Glory, and He says,
" Thomas, reach hither thy hand and thrust it into my
side, and put thy finger into these wounds." And
Thomas cries out, "My Lord and my God!" That is
what he thought of Him. He owned Him as His Lord
and his God.

O, may God scatter our unbelief to-night, and may
we say, like Thomas, " My Lord and My God !" I don't
want any other Lord but Jesus Christ. I don't want
any other master but Jesus Christ.

O, this miserable unbelief that is keeping back God's
blessing from this world. Let us say with Thomas to-
night, ' ' My Lord and my God. " That is what Thomas

300 M00DYS SERMONS.

thought of Him. His unbelief is gone now. He never
doubted from that moment that the Lord had come up
out of the sepulcher.

But here is another witness. Ah, what a witness we
have in John! He was a little nearer the heart of the
Savior than any of the rest. He is that lovable disciple
that laid his head upon the bosom of the Son of God.
He heard the throbbing of that heart.

How he loved him. It would take all night to examine
John, the beloved disciple. O, how much he thought
of Him. In the sight of John, He was the lily of the
valley, the bright and morning star, the root and off-
spring of David. John says, He was the light of the
world. He says, He was the life of the world. He
says, He was the resurrection and the life. It would
take a good while to go through John. We would have
to go through his gospel, then through the epistles,
and then through Revelation to find out what John
thought of Jesus. Yes, he thought a good deal of Him.
If you want to get a good idea of Jesus, read what John
wrote; you need not get any of these infidel books. Read
John. John was with Him all through His ministry. You
could not have a better witness than John, that Galilean
fisherman.

Here is another witness, and this witness ought to con-
vince every skeptic. When I was in Baltimore, there
was an atheist persuaded to come into the meeting by
some friend. Said he, "Just come in. I would like to
have you come in. Of course you don't believe any-
thing that is said, but just come in and see the audience."
I happened to be preaching that night on this very sub-
ject, "What think ye of Christ ?"

WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST? 301

The atheist began to listen when I began to talk about
Saul. "Now," said he, "I would like to hear what
Saul has to say, because there was a time when Saul did
not believe in Him. There was a time when Saul was
His bitterest enemy; and I would like to hear what that
witness has to say." And he listened, and, thank God,
he was convicted and converted, and I correspond with
him now. " He is one of the brightest lights in the whole
city of Baltimore. I hope there will be some atheist
converted here to-night.

Now, let us hear what that little tentmaker of Tarsus
has to say. ''Paul, what think you of Christ?" Hear
what he says. " I count all things but dung that I may
win Christ." What did he care for this world? The
fashion of it passes away. He had his eye fixed upon
the Man of Calvary. He left the city of Jerusalem,
where he was brought up, and where he held a high office.
He left Gamaliel, and the whole of them, and he says,
"The life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the
faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Him-
self for me. Who shall separate us from the love of
Christ? * * * I am persuaded that neither death,
nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor
things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth,
nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from
the love of God. which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord."

Yes, that little tentmaker thought a good deal of Him.
The moment he got a glimpse of the Man who died on
Calvary, his heart was taken captive. From the time
Christ met him at Damascus until he met his death at
Rome, he was all in all for Christ. Every hair in his
head was true for Christ. Every drop of his blood was for

302 MOODY S SERMONS.

Christ, for Jesus Christ every time his pulse beat, it
beat true to the Man that is at the right hand of God.
If you want to find out what Paul thought of Him, read
some of his epistles. He thought everything of Him. He
thought nothing of himself. He had a good opinion of
himself till he met Christ; but Christ was so much bet-
ter than he was that he sank down and was nothing.
When a man sees Jesus Christ, he will have something
then to feed upon. He will not think what a great
man he is. He will think what a mean contemptible
wretch he is in comparison with the Man that is at
the right hand of God.

Well, I have other witnesses. There are a good many
that would like to come and testify. This Bible is full
of them. I might call up Zaccheus of Jericho. He
could tell you a good deal about Christ. I might call
up Mary Magdalena. She could tell some wonderful
stories about Jesus. I might call up Martha and Mary of
Bethany, and their brother, Lazarus. I would like to
call up that man he met over there among the Gad-
arenes, out of whom he cast legions of devils. But we
have not time to examine these witnesses. I think we
have examined enough, haven't we? Isn't the jury satis-
fied that He was more than man; that He was God man-
ifest in the flesh; that He was all He claimed to be?

But if you will pardon me, I would like to call your
attention to this. We have something besides men. The
angels were once, and only once, permitted to bear wit-
ness. A friend was telling me to-night that the angels
have not the privilege of working that you and I have. Ga-
briel has not the privilege of coming down here and saving
a soul to Christ. When Cornelius wanted to know the

WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST? 303

way of life, the angel had to tell him to send to Joppa,
thirty miles away, and get Peter. But the angels had a
chance once to tell what they thought of Jesus Christ.
Those shepherds were, perhaps, half asleep there on the
plains of Bethlehem, when all at once there came down
a heavenly host all around, and the shepherds began to
rub their eyes and look up. What a strain it must have
been. What was it? "Behold, I bring you good tidings of
great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you
this day is born in the city of David a Savior which is
Christ the Lord. " That is what they thought of Him.
"A Savior. 'r And then there was a great company — I
don't know but the whole choir of heaven was down here
right out on those plains, and they burst out, "Glory to
God in the highest, and on earth peace, good-will toward
men." Blessed gospel, my friends! Good tidings! Who
will believe it to-night! Unto you, every soul in this
house, unto you is born, this day, in the city of David, a
Savior. And now the question is, what will you do
with Him?

John, you know, says he was caught up once, and he
heard a loud voice in heaven. It was a voice like the
voice of many waters. ' ' It was the voice of many an-
gels round about the throne. The number of them was
ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thou-
sands, and they cried, Worthy is the Lamb that was
slain to receive power, and riches and wisdom, and
strength, and honor and glory, and blessing. " That is
what they think of Him up there.

O, let earth join with heaven to-night. Let all this as-
sembly join with that crowd around the throne, and let us
say, "Worthy, worthy is the Lamb that was slain from the

304 Moody's sermons.

foundation of the world." O poor, vile, sinner, come
out from the world and join the hallelujahs of heaven to-
night, and let us all shout together, ' ' Worthy, worthy
is the Lamb! " Isn't He worthy? What do you ministers
of the cross say? Isn't he worthy? Let us up and pub-
lish it. Let us out and tell the world of Him. The
devil has been deceiving the world. The world does not
know this Christ. And who shall publish Him if we
don't? The world is perishing for the want of Jesus
Christ. Let us go out into the world and tell it out.

Now, God forbid that I should speak in any careless
or any flippant way, but with all reverence let me say
that there is one more witness that I want to bring in
here to-night, and that is God the Father. As John
stood on the banks of Jor dan — and I can imagine there
was an audience twice the size of this audience gathered
around that wonderful preacher there on those banks,
and he just held them breathless, when Jesus came
forward and was baptized, as He came up out of that
water a voice was heard. Bible students tell us that
the Jehovah of the old testament is the Christ of
the new, and it is supposed by the best Bible
students that for four thousand years God the Father
never broke the silence. From the time that Adam fell
from the summit of Eden, until Christ came at Jordan,
God the Father had not broken the silence. But it is
written in the book that He came to do God's will, and
the moment he began his ministry, God broke the si-
lence of four thousand years. As Jesus came up out of
the water, a voice was heard, saying, " This is my be-
loved Son, in whom I am well pleased." O, if God is
well pleased with Him, let us be pleased with Him. If

WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST? 305

the God of heaven is well pleased with Jesus, let us be
pleased with Him.

Then on the Mount of Transfiguration, when Peter
wanted to build three tabernacles, one for Moses, one for
Elias and for Christ, putting Christ on a level with Moses
and Elias, God Almighty came in a cloud and snatched
Moses and Elias away, and left Christ alone, and He
broke the silence again, ''This is my beloved Son, in
whom I am well pleased. Hear ye Him." Hear Him.

O, may we hear the voice of the Son of God to-night
calling us from the world and from ourselves, and may
we think well of Him! O, let us think well of Christ,
and let us go out and publish His name, and proclaim
salvation to a perishing world!

PREACH THE GOSPEL.

" And He said unto them, ' Go ye into all the world and preach the
gospel to every creature,' " — Mark, xvi, 15.

I notice one young lady who is not paying attention.
I have a text to-day that means everybody. ' ' Go ye into
all the world and preach the gospel to every creature."
That takes in that young lady that is thoughtless and
careless. I am afraid she has not come here to" hear the
Word.

Now, the best part of the service, you know, is the text.
There is really more power in this little text than in all
the hymns in the hymn-book. There is more life, more
power, in one word that Jesus Christ has said than in
tons of the traditions of men, and in all the sermons that
may be preached.

Now, just let me call your attention to that text again.
"And He said unto them, Go ye into all the world. "
That means this city. He might have had this city in
His mind when He said it. And the next verse says,
"And he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved,
and he that believeth not shall be damned."

These are not the words of any prophet. He was a
prophet, but he was more than a prophet. They are not
the words of a man. They are the words of the God-man.
Christ had faced the world, and had conquered it. It was

306

The Last Supper. Matthew, xxvi, 26-29.

PREACH THE GOSPEL. 30Q

resting under His feet. He had triumphed over the
world. He had met Satan, and had conquered him. He
had met the cross and had conquered it. He had faced
the enemy, which is death, and conquered him. He
had gone down into the grave, and had robbed the grave
of its victory. Joseph's sepulcher lay behind Him now,
empty. It is the captain of our salvation sending out
his warriors. Around Him was gathered that handful of
men that had been with Him in His three years of ministry.
You can see the tears trickling over their cheeks. He is
now going to leave them. For three long years — three
short years they must have been — they had been in His
company; they had associated together. But now His
work on earth was finished, as far as He was concerned.
He must now go up on high and commence and carry
on the glorious work that He had begun on earth.

In the sight of the world, these men He had around
Him were very weak and contemptible. There was not
a mighty man among them. In the sight of the world
there was not a great man among them. In the sight of
the world they were unlettered, unlearned fishermen
from Galilee, nearly all of them, and yet He sent them
out as lambs among wolves. " Go ye into all the world
and preach the gospel to every creature." Don't leave
out one. Although the gospel has been proclaimed now
for upwards of eighteen hundred years, and has been pro-
claimed in this country as in no other country under the
sun for the past hundred years — there is hardly a child but
has heard the gospel proclaimed — yet I will venture to
say there is not a word in the English language so little
understood as the word gospel. I venture to say if I
should ask this audience what that word means, there is

310 MOODY S SERMONS.

not one out of ten that could tell. If I should say I was
going to get off this platform and begin with this man
there, and go through the congregation and ask every
one what it means, many of you would get up and run
out of the house; you would not want to expose your
ignorance. I think I had been a partaker of the gospel
ten years before I knew what the word meant. A great
many have an idea that the gospel is the most doleful
message that ever came into this world; and when you
begin to proclaim it some men put on a face, as though
you had brought a death warrant, or an invitation to at-
tend some funeral, or witness an execution, or go into
some hospital where there is some plague. A great many
people act as if they were to be struck with a plague the
moment you begin to talk to them about the gospel.
The gospel of the Son of God is the best news that ever
came from heaven to earth, the best news that was ever
heard by mortal man.

Now, if men really believed it, we should not have to
preach and preach, and beg and coax them to believe it.
It don't take men long to believe good news; but the fact
is that the god of this world has blinded us, so that what
is good news men think is bad news. When the angel
came to the shepherds upon the plains of Bethlehem, the
angel said unto them, "Fear not; for behold I bring
you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all peo-
ple; for unto you is born this day, in the city of David,
a Savior which is Christ the Lord." That is the gospel.
God has provided a Savior for man. When the world
was lost and ruined, when there was no eye to pity, -no.
hand to save, none to deliver, in the fullness of time God
sent His own Son to redeem the world. That is the

PREACH THE GOSPEL. 3 I I

gospel. The word gospel means God's spell. It is a
time God is not imputing unto men their trespasses and
sins, but seeking to forgive them, bringing good news,
glad tidings of great joy. Who will believe it to-day
and be saved? In the fifteenth chapter of First Corin-
thians Paul says, ' ' I declare unto you the gospel, " and
he goes on to tell what the gospel was. "Christ died
for our sins, according to the Scriptures." That is what
Paul called the Scriptures. Christ died, not as a mere
martyr, as some people tell us. He did not die just to
exhibit the love He had for the world. He did not die
that He might convince men that He loved them. There
was a deeper meaning in His death than that. He died,
not as a martyr, as some people tell us, to show that He
was willing to seal with His blood the principles and
doctrines that He taught. Christ didn't die as Stephen
did — a martyr — didn't die as that long line of martyrs
have died, to defend the truth that Christ brought into
the world. He died as man's substitute. Said he, ' ' I lay
my life down , and I take it up again. " This idea that some
people tell us — that Christ could not help but die! For
eighteen months before He died He was telling us that
He was going up to Jerusalem, and he should be delivered
into the hands of the Gentiles, and He should be put to
death, and on the third day He should rise again. For
that purpose He came into the world, not only to live,
but to die for the world, that through His death we might
enter into eternal life.

I want to tell you why I think the gospel is good news.
It has taken out of my path four of the bitterest enemies
that I have ever had, and not only my enemies, but the
enemies of the whole human race, just swept them right
out of the way, and they are gone.

312 Moody's sermons.

The first enemy I want to speak of is sin. Now, sin
makes life bitter; sin makes our lives dark. Men may
discuss about it, and they may deny it and talk as much
as they have a mind to, but it don't change the fact. Sin
has made your life and mine bitter. Not only your own
sins, but the sins of your children, the sins of your friends,
have brought you into many a dark hour and many a
sore conflict, and when you take a look into the future,
and remember that it is written, " The soul that sinneth
it shall die," and then read again, " That all have sinned
and come short of the glory of God," there is nothing
very sweet in the future with that in view. But the
gospel comes and tells me that Jesus Christ came and
died for sin; that Jesus Christ met the penalty for sin;
that Jesus Christ came into the world for that very pur-
pose, to put away sin; that " He was manifested to take
away the sin of this world." ' ' Behold the Lamb of God
that taketh away the sin of the world. Why, the prophet
says, as he looks forward to that time, " Out of love to
my soul He hath- taken all my sin." I like that word
"all," not a part of them. If I had committed a hun-
dred sins, and God only had forgiven me ninety-nine, I
would be just as bad off as if He had not forgiven me
any. I have got to have all sin put away before I can
have peace and rest. " Out of love to my soul He hath
taken all my sins and cast them behind His back." Not
behind my back. Satan would get at them if they were
there, and bring them before me, and torment me with
them. But the prophet says, " Out of love to my soul
He hath taken all my sins, and cast them behind His
back." How is the devil to get at them? He has got
to get behind the Almighty's back before he can get at

PREACH THE GOSPEL. 3 I 3

them. They will not trouble me if He has put them out
of the way. That is good news, isn't it? That is what
the gospel tells me, that He has put away sin.

Another Bible illustration is that He has blotted them
out as a cloud. Now, last night there were a great many
clouds; you could not see a star some of the time. But
if you look around this afternoon you cannot see a cloud.
Can you tell me what has become of those clouds? Can
any of your modern philosophers tell me where those
clouds are? What has become of them? They are gone.
You cannot find them. But the gospel tells me if I
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, He will blot my sins
as a thick cloud. That is good news, isn't it?

But, better still, we read over here in Ezekiel that
"Not one of them shall be mentioned." They are gone
for time and for eternity. When God forgives it is
thorough work. We talk about one forgiving, but we
very often say, " Well, I will forgive you, but I won't
forget it. I want you to remember that I will forgive
you, but I won't forget it. I will remember that against
you after all." That is not the way the Lord forgives.
He says, "When I forgive I will not remember." To
me that is one of the sweetest thoughts in the Bible. If
the blood of Jesus Christ has atoned for my sins, they
are covered for time and eternity; they are blotted out
for time and for eternity; not one of them shall be men-
tioned. Is not that good news, to get sin out of the
way?

Another Bible expression is, "I will remove them as
far as the east is from the west." I don't know how far
that is; can't find out; just as far as you can get them.

Another Bible expression is, " He will cast them into

314 Moody's sermons.

the sea of forgetfulness. " A minister was telling me of
his preaching from that text, and his little boy, ten years
old, who heard the sermon, after they came home, said,
fi Pa, when you were talking about the Lord casting sin
into the sea, you ought to have told them that sin was
heavy like stones, and that it would drop out of sight, or
they might think it would float about like corks on the
top." But He casts them into the depth of the sea.

I think it was John Bunyan who said he was glad it
was not a river, because a river might get dry. But He
casts them into the sea, and into the depths of it. Ought
we not to lift up our heads and rejoice to think that sin
is put out of the way? It is gone for time and for eter-
nity, for God has put it away.

Then another enemy is death. That has been con-
quered. When I was a little boy, I used to look upon
death as the most terrible thing in this world I never
thought of it that I did not tremble, and the cold chills
used to roll over me. In that little village in Massachu-
setts where I was born and brought up, it was the cus-
tom when a death occurred to toll the age of the person.
If a man was ninety years old when he died, there were
ninety strokes of the bell. I always used to count the
strokes of that bell. When a person very old died, I
used to think, " Death is a good ways off." But some-
times death would come down into the teens, and then
death used to seem nearer. Those times used to be
times of darkness to me. Some nights I was afraid to
go to bed, I was afraid of death. People may say I was
a coward, but nevertheless I was afraid of death; it was
so terrible to me. I remember the first time I put my
hand on the face of a corpse. A cold chill went through
me.

PREACH THE GOSPEL. 315

I remember once acting as pall-bearer to a schoolmate
of mine, and I did not get over it for days and days. I
used to look forward to that period as the darkest time
of my life. But that is all gone now. As I go on through
life I can say, " O death, where is thy sting?" and I
hear a voice rolling down through the centuries, corning
down from the cross of Christ, saying, "Buried in the
bosom of the Son of God." He tasted death for every
man. He took the sting of death in His bosom. Now
I can say, "O death, where is thy sting?" If a hornet
or a wasp should fly on your hand, you would be afraid
it would sting. But if the sting was gone, if the sting
was taken away, you would not be any more afraid of it
than you would of a fly. That is just what Christ did.
He took away the sting of death. Now, I have not got
to die. This Adam life will pass away; this house I live
in will be torn down; but I have ' ' a house not made with
hands, eternal in the heavens." The grave may get this
Adam coil, may get this house I live in, but I have got a
new life as lasting as God himself. I have become a
partaker of the divine nature. " He that believeth on
the Son hath everlasting life." How is death going to
touch that? Death has had his hand on Christ once; He
never will again. Death may steal up on this platform,
and lay his icy hand on me, and take me away out of
this body, but I shall be clothed with immortality; I shall
see Him and be like Him. Instead of getting a body
that is subject to sin, I get a body that sin cannot touch,
a resurrected and glorified body. It is the gospel that
brings me such news. My friends, you had better be-
lieve it and get the benefit of it.

Then there is another enemy out of the way. I used

3 16 Moody's sermons.

to think the grave was the most dark and gloomy place
in the world. But that gloom is all gone now; and
when I lay away a friend in Christ, I go to the grave and
lay him down there, and I can hear a voice coming up
from the grave, "Because He liveth ye shall live also."
Jesus Christ conquered the grave. He went down into
the grave and measured its depths, and they laid Him in
Joseph's sepulcher; but on the third morning, the glori-
ous resurrection morning, He rose again. He conquered
the grave. The grave has no victory; it has lost its vic-
tory. So we can say now, ' ' O grave, where is thy vic-
tory?" The Son of God has robbed the grave of its
victory. That is what the gospel tells me. That is
good news, isn't it?

The last enemy is the judgment. I used to think it
would be terrible to have to go up there before the great
white throne, and have all the sins I ever committed
blazed out before the assembled universe. But now I
find not one of them is to be mentioned. Not only that,
but the judgment has already passed to the believer, and
I was judged in Christ. Christ took my place. He died
in my stead. He suffered for my sins. He became the
sinner's substitute. "He was wounded for 6ur trans-
gressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastise-
ment of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes
we are healed." If Christ was punished for me, I am
not going to be punished. God is not going to demand
payment twice, is He? If a man owed me, and some one
else paid it, I could not collect it from that man, could I?
Now, Christ has paid the penalty. Christ has suffered
for the sins of the world, and when I believe that, I need
not fear the judgment.

PREACH THE GOSPEL. 317

But I can imagine some of you say, " What will you
do with that passage where it says, ' Every one must
give an account of the deeds done in the body?' " I
think that is very plain. Paul there is writing to the
church, and writing to believers, and that is an account
of stewardship, a judgment for rewards. Every man
will be brought into judgment for rewards. And some
of you Christians that come into the church and live ten,
fifteen or twenty years, and never lift your hand for
Christ — hearers of the word, not doers — you don't think
there will be much reward for you, do you? Some peo-
ple want to know if there are degrees of reward in heaven.
I think every cup will be full, but I think there will be
some very small cups there. I think Paul will enjoy
more than some Christians will. I think he will have
greater capacity for enjoying than some of us Christians.
But I think there will be a great many people who will
just barely get into heaven. They have hardly lifted their
voices for the Son of God. And yet if a man believes on
the Lord Jesus Christ with his heart, He has promised to
give him eternal life. That is the beginning; that is the
first step; and we cannot do a thing to please God until
we do that, until we believe on His Son; and the mo-
ment we believe with all our heart on His Son, the new
life begins, and it does not begin until we take that step;
and if a man says, "I will not believe; I will not receive
Jesus Christ as my Savior; I will not take Him as my
way; I will not take Him as my truth; I will go and find
some other way," I believe that man is making the mis-
take that we read of where it says, " He that climbeth
up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber."
The only way into the kingdom of God is this one way,

3 18 Moody's sermons.

4 ' Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to
every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall
be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned."
Now, there is a universal offer. If any man says, " I
don't like your gospel, because it is too narrow," and I
very often hear people say that, I just meet them with
that text, ' ' Go ye into all the world and preach the
gospel to every creature." There is a universal offer.
The rich and the poor, the high and the low, all are to
have the gospel preached to them. And preach what?
Why, that Christ died; that is the gospel. I do not
believe He wants us to come and preach to you the gos-
pel, and then does not give you power to believe it; do
you? Do you think the Lord sends His messengers
out all over the earth to preach His glorious gospel, and
then has constituted man so he cannot believe it? That
is what many people tell us. It was not many hours ago
that that very thing was brought up; that some men are
so constituted they cannot believe. Away with such
doctrine! A man comes to me, and wants to have me go
to his house, and take tea with him to-night. " I would
like very much to go with you, sir, but the fact is, I can't
go." " Have you got some other engagement?" "No."
" Why can't you go then?" " Well, I don't feel just like
it." "What is the matter? Are you sick?" No, sir,
never was any better than I am now." " Well, what do
you mean?" "Well, the fact is, I am so constituted I
can't believe you want me." There is a good deal of
sense in that, isn't there? So when the gospel of the
Son of God is preached, people say they are so consti-
tuted they can't believe it. Away with such doctrine!
"Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to

PREACH THE GOSPEL. 319

every creature. He that believeth," and there the line
is drawn. Men can believe if they will. It is not
because men cannot believe; it is because men will not
believe. " Ye will not come unto Me that ye might have
life." Some one has drawn the picture of Peter saying,
" Lord, you don't really mean that? You don't mean
that we should go back to Jerusalem and preach the
gospel to those men who murdered you?" "Yes," says
Christ, " I want to have you tarry in Jerusalem until the
power comes, and preach to those Jerusalem sinners first.
Let those men that murdered Me have the gospel
preached to them first." " But, Lord they may be so
constituted they can't believe." "But you are going to
preach the gospel. That is your work. Go ye into all
the world, and proclaim the gospel to every creature."
"What!" says Peter, "preach the gospel to that man
that drove those nails into your hands and feet?" "Yes,
go and hunt up that man that drove those nails into my
hands and my feet, and tell him that I forgive him freely;
that I love him with an everlasting love; that I will give
him a seat in my kingdom if he will believe on Me. Go
hunt up that man that drove that spear into my side, and
tell him there is a nearer way to my heart than that.
Tell him that there is nothing but love in my heart for
him, and that if he will believe on me, he shall have a
seat in my kingdom. Go hunt up that man that brought
that cruel crown of thorns and put it on my brow. Go
tell him that if he will believe on Me, I will put a crown
on his head, and there shall not be a thorn in it. Go
hunt up that man that spat in my face, and tell him that
I love him, and that he can be saved if he will believe
the gospel and repent from his sins and turn unto Me,

320 Moody's sermons.

Preach the gospel to every creature." John Bunyan de-
scribes the scene, that when Peter stood up there on the
day of Pentecost preaching, and the crowd was flocking
around him, one came up and said, " Peter, Peter, can
I be saved? I am the man that spat in His face."
" Yes," says Peter, " He told me to preach the gospel to
every creature, and that means you." Another comes
pressing up through the crowd. "Peter, do you think
there is any hope for me? Do you think I can be saved?
I am the man that took that rod out of his hand and
brought it down over that cruel crown of thorns. Can I
be saved?" "Yes," says Peter, " He told me to preach
the gospel to every creature." Then comes the centurion,
and he says, " I am the man that put Him to death. I
had charge of the execution. I gave orders that those
nails should be driven into His hands and feet. Peter,
can I be saved?" "Yes," says Peter, " He told me to
preach the gospel to every creature, and he that believeth
and is baptized shall be saved, and he that believeth not
shall be damned. "

My friends, is not that a universal offer? Is not that
invitation extended to every creature? If a man in this
gospel meeting is lost, whose fault is it? Is it God's
fault? What more can He do for us than He has done?
He sent His prophets, and we killed them. He sent
His own Son, and we murdered Him. And after He
had gone up on High, He sent the Holy Spirit to con-
vict us of sin; and the Holy Spirit is here on the earth
at the present time.

So, my friends, to-day you can believe the gospel if
you will. And the gospel is this, that Christ has come
to meet your need. There is not a need that you feel in

PREACH THE GOSPEL. 321

your hear* to-day, but that Christ can meet if you let
Him. G'»d sent Him here to meet man's need. "He
healed all them that had need of healing." Do you need
it? Is th i heart heavy and sad on account of sin? Let
Jesus Chi st come to meet your need. He is so anxious
to save v sn, you have not got to ask Him; He stands at
the door of your heart now offering you salvation, and
all yo\i have to do is just to take it and live.

When I was in Glasgow, a lady came to me and said,
"Mr. Moody, you are all the time talking about take,
tak \, take — all you have to do is to take — as though we
we 'e to take a gift. Is that word take in the Bible? I
h?. re been hunting through the Bible, and I can't find it
a/iywhere."' "Well, I am very glad to tell you it is
here. I don't have to manufacture texts. It would take
a lifetime, it would take a thousand years, to just begin
to touch the texts in that book. We can't begin to use
what we have got." She said, " I wish you would just
show it to me." So I turned over into the last chapter
of the Bible and read, "The Spirit and the bride say,
Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let
him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him
take the water of life freely." That is broad enough,
isn't it? I can imagine after the Lord got up to glory,
He could see that after Paul wrote a few of his epistles,
some one would say, "I can't be saved, because I don't
belong to the elect." He saw that some one was going
to stumble over the doctrine of election. So the Lord
came down one Sunday; John was in the Spirit on the
Lord's day there on Patmos; and John and his Master
got together; can't tell whether it was in Patmos or in
heaven. The Lord came to John and said, "Now

322 MOODY S SERMONS.

John you just write these things." And he began to
write; and he kept on writing. " Now," says he, "be-
fore you seal it, put in one more invitation so broad that
there shall not be a man in the world that will think he
is left out. " He might have seen some one down here
in this city stumbling over the doctrine of election. So
He worded the invitation so that every man would be
included. "The Spirit and the bride say, Come." The
church is the bride; and the Spirit of God unites with the
church and says, " Come." "And let him that heareth
say, Come." If you have heard it, take up the cry and
ask others. " And let him that is athirst come." Some
people say, "I am deaf, and I can't hear." A great many
people say they are not thirsty enough. They say they
are anxious to be anxious. Isn't that a strange state-
ment? "I am anxious to be anxious." And so they
think they are not thirsty enough. ' ' Let him that
heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come.
And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely,"
And if God Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, says,
"Let him come," who is going to stop him? All the
devils in hell could not stop that little boy there from
coming and taking the water of life to-day if he will.
There is nothing to hinder you if you will. The Lord
will give you legions of angels to help you take the water
of life if you want it. You can take the water of life to-
day. You can be blessed to-day if you will. You can
have every sin of your life swept out of your way, and
get victory over the world, the flesh, the devil to-day if
you will.

"Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to
every creature." That means every one of us here. The

PREACH THE GOSPEL. 323

question is to-day, what will you do with the gosp.el of
the Son of God? What will you do with this offer?
He comes to every person here and says, " I want to
forgive you. I want to bless you. " Now, you can
spurn the offer, you can refuse it, or you can let Him
bless you.

I read an account some time ago of a man in Russia
who became a wild, reckless prodigal. His father was
very rich, and his father got him a commission in the
army. He thought if he sent him away from his old
associates he might reform. That is a mistake a great
many people make. They think if they can get them
away from their old comrades they will break off from
their sins. You can't get away from the sin that is in
you. Christ is the only one that can give you victory
over sin. This father put his boy in the army in the
hope that it might do him good. But he went on a
great deal worse in the army than when he was out.
He gambled and spent all the money he could get hold
of, and all he could borrow. The laws of that country
are very rigid about the payment of debts. If a man
can not pay his debts he has to go to prison. This
young man had been gambling and got in debt, and he
had got to the end of his rope, as we would say. He
could not go any further. And one night he sat in the
barracks; he had to meet that day, and there was only
one way he could meet the debt. He could sell his com-
mission; but if he sold his commission he would have to
go home in disgrace, and meet his old associates and that
loving father. His heart was broken. He was coming
to himself, and beginning to see what he had brought
himself to. So he sat down there in his barracks that

324 Moody's sermons.

night and took a piece of paper and a pen and began to
put down his debts, and reckoned up to see where he
was. He put down a long column and footed it up. It
was a large amount; and one of the largest debts had to
be met the next day. He wept like a child over that
account, and wrote underneath, "Who is to pay the
debt?" and then laid his head down upon his desk and
wept, and at last he went to sleep. That night the czar
of the Russias, dressed in disguise, passed through the
barracks to see what the soldiers were doing, and he
came into this man's barracks and found him asleep.
His candle was burning very faintly. It was very late
in the night. The czar took up that paper, and he sus-
pected what it meant. He could see the marks of dissi-
pation upon the young man. He took up his pen and
wrote right underneath, the word ' ' Nicholas, " and passed
on. When the young man awoke from his sleep, what
was his surprise to see that signature, "Nicholas."
What does this mean? That is the handwriting of the
emperor. How came it here? He could not make out
what it meant. But early the next morning the empe-
ror sent the money around, and the debt was paid.

I simply tell you this as an illustration. You can just
put down all your sins from childhood up that you can
think of, and write right underneath, "The blood of
Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanseth from all sin." That is
the gospel. His blood was shed for that very purpose,
and your sins can be covered to-day if you will have
them covered up. You can be saved this hour if you
will. You can believe the gospel and be saved to-day if
you will.

Beyond.

HEAVEN,

A great many people have an idea that we know noth-
ing about the future state, and that we are to be left in
darkness. A great many professed Christians will talk
as if it was all speculation the moment you begin to talk
to them about the future and about heaven.

Now, I firmly believe if the Lord had wanted us to be
in darkness about the future, there would not have been
anything in Scripture about it. If the Lord had not want-
ed us to study the Scripture and find out anything about
heaven, it wouldn't have been recorded. I believe that
all Scripture is given by inspiration, and that all is
profitable from one end of the Bible to the other; and if
persons that are in darkness about heaven would just
take up a concordance and the Bible, and go from one end
of the Bible to the other, and see what is in Scripture
about heaven, I think they would be perfectly amazed.

When I was in Dublin, I heard of a man there who
never had looked into the Bible, but he had lost his only
son, and every night after that that man could be seen in
his little cottage with a light searching the Bible. Every
hour he could get away from his business he was looking
into the word of God. Some one asked him what he

327

328 Moody's sermons.

was doing it for, and he said he was trying to find out
where his Johnny had gone.

I suppose all this congregation have departed friends,
and I think we ought to be interested enough to know
where they have gone. When I was in Great Britain
I met fathers and mothers that had sons in this country;
they were very anxious to hear about this country; they
would listen for hours if I would talk to them about this
country, because they had loved ones here.

A minister lost his child, and a brother minister came
to the funeral to officiate, and when he got through the
father got up and said that years ago he used to look out
across the river that flowed in front of his house. He
looked over on the other side of the river and he said
there were people there he did not know; he took no in-
terest in that community, because they were strangers to
him; but one day his daughter went over there to live;
she left the home and was married and settled down, and
he said when the child went over there to live, he became
suddenly interested in that community; and said he, "Now
I have got another child who has gone over another river,
and heaven seems dearer to me to-day than it ever has
before."

The trouble is, we are so busy in this world, we have
so much to think about, so many cares, so much pleas-
ure, so much of the world, that we don't stop to think
about where we are going or what our future state is
to be.

Now, to-day let us remember that it is not all specula-
tion, that it is not all fiction. We have associated
with skeptics and unbelievers so much that we even
doubt the existence of heaven. We don't believe that it

HEAVEN. 329

is real. I don't think we would have to urge men to let
go of the things of time if they really believed that these
things were eternally true, and that Christ has really
gone to prepare a place for us.

I remember, soon after I was converted, an infidel got
hold of me, and he wanted to know how it was that
when I prayed, I always addressed my prayer as if God
was above me. He said that God was in one place as
much as in another, that God was everywhere. I did
not know much about the Bible then, and I must confess
I was a little confused the next time I went to pray, and
it seemed as if I was praying to space — just to the air;
it seemed as if I hadn't any one to pray to. I could not
locate God. But since I have got better acquainted with
my Bible, I find that it is right for us when we approach
the throne of mercy to locate God. Heaven is a location.
This idea that heaven is everywhere and nowhere is com-
ing from the evil one. It is a doctrine that has been
taught by those that believe that there is no heaven.

Now, just turn for a moment to the twenty-sixth chap-
ter of Deuteronomy, and fifteenth verse. "Look down
from thy holy habitation, from heaven, and bless thy
people in Israel, and the land which thou hast given us,
as thou swearest unto our fathers, a land that floweth
with milk and honey."

Heaven, I believe, is as much a place as this city is. I
believe that it is located, and that God has a dwelling-
place. To be sure, we say that God is here with his
Spirit, the same as we say the sun has been shining in
this city; but the astronomers tell us the sun is ninety-
five millions of miles away. But we must bear in mind

33° Moody's sermons.

that God is a person, and if He is a person, He must
have a dwelling-place. Now, we find here in this chap-
ter we just read that Moses prayed that God would look
down from heaven.

Then, we find in the prayer of the Lord Jesus, "Our
Father which art in heaven " — not on earth, but "which
art in heaven."

Then we find in Revelation that it is called a city,
and we find Abraham looking for "that city which
hath foundation, whose builder and maker is God." He
believed that was real. The well- watered plains of
Sodom did not have any attraction for Abraham. Why?
Because with the eye of faith he saw a better country —
a city that had not any cemetery. Think of that ! There is
no such city as that on this continent. If there could
be a city found in this world that had not a cemetery,
what a rush there would be to it! Not only that, but it
is a city where sin cannot enter. Think of that ! Noth-
ing that defileth shall enter that city. It is a city where
sorrow is a stranger, and where tears never flow. A
city without tears — think of that! Think of the tears
that have flowed in this city! Think of the sorrow that
is represented by this audience to-day. If each one
could open his own heart and tell out his own sorrows,
what a dark book it would make, wouldn't it? How
filled with sorrow and with burdens! In that city there
shall be no sorrow; there shall be no tears, and there
shall be no death there. Death will be a stranger. Ah,
what a city! Is not that worth living for? Some gen-
eral said when he came in sight of Damascus, and the
people fled and left the city, "If they will not fight
for that city, what will they fight for ?" And if men

HEAVEN. 331

will not live for heaven what will they live for ?
Let us look a moment at John's description of that
place — Revelation, xx, 21: "And the twelve gates were
twelve pearls; every several gate was of one pearl. And
the street of the city was pure gold, as if it were trans-
parent glass, and I saw no temple therein, for the Lord
God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. And
the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon to
shine in it; for the glory of God did lighten it, and
the Lamb is the light thereof. And the nations of them
which are saved shall walk in the light of it; and the
kings of the earth do bring their glory and honor into it;
and the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day, for
there shall be no night there." On a little gravestone in
a cemetery where a blind child was buried was put these
words, " No night." She lived in perpetual night here —
in perpetual darkness; but the thought that filled her mind,
that animated her and lifted her up out of her troubles
and sorrows, was that she was going to a. land where
there is no night. "And they shall bring the glory and
honor of the nations into it. And there shall in no wise
enter into it any thing that defileth; neither whatsoever
worketh abomination or maketh a lie, but they which
are written in the Lamb's Book of Life."

There is a great difference between the heavenly and
the earthly paradise. In this earthly paradise we find
Adam driven out, but we shall go no more out forever.
We find Adam driven away from the tree of life, but in
this city we shall have a right to the tree of life, and
we shall eat of that tree and live forever. We cannot
be tempted there. In this earthly paradise Adam was
tempted and lost all. The tempter will be shut out of

332 Moody's sermons.

that city. Nothing that defileth can enter there. Thank
God for what is in store for those that will put their
trust in Him!

But I have had this question raised: What does Paul
mean about the third heaven? Are there three degrees?
Now, the Hebrews in their writings acknowledge three
heavens. The first was where the showers come, and
where the birds fly. The second was the firmament
where the sun, moon and stars are. The third was the
dwelling-place of God. When Paul spoke about the
third heaven, that is what he meant.

Now, turn for a moment to Second Chronicles, seventh
chapter, twelfth verse: "And the Lord appeared to Sol-
omon by night and said unto him, ' I have heard thy
prayer, and have chosen this place to myself for an house
of sacrifice. If I shut up heaven that there be no rain,
or if I command the locusts to devour up the land, or if
I send pestilence among my people, if my people, which
are called by my name, shall humble themselves and pray
and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then
will I hear from heaven, and forgive their sin and will
heal their land. Now mine eyes shall be open, and mine
ears attent unto the prayer that is made in this place."
We find that God says here, " I will hear prayer that is
offered in this place." If he brings famine and pestilence
upon the land, on account of their backsliding, and on
account of their sins, if they will humble themselves and
confess their sins, and turn from them, then, He says,
"I will hear in heaven, my dwelling-place, and I will
answer their prayer, and I will turn their captivity." I
believe that God has done that all these thousands of
years. Every time we have wandered away from God,

HEAVEN. 333

and the heavens seem to be shut, and we seem to have
no communion with God, it is because some sin has come
in, and God has hid his face. And what we want in the
church to-day is to turn from our sin back to God, and
He will hear our cry; and he will give us abundance of
rain. God is not so far away but that he can hear pray-
er. There has been a good deal of speculation about the
distance from this earth to heaven. People often try to
find out something about it. If we don't know just the
distance there is one thing we do know, that is that it is
not so far but God can hear a poor sinner pray. There
is never a tear shed on this earth but God has seen it.
There never has been a sigh but God has heard it. When
Daniel besought that he might understand his vision,
Gabriel appeared in his presence to interpret it before he
had finished his prayer. Heaven is not so far away after
all. If we are living right, we shall be so near heaven
that we will get communication from there very often.
We find the publican going up into the temple made a
very short prayer, but it was long enough to reach heaven,
and he went down to his house justified. We find again,
when Solomon dedicated the temple — First Kings, eighth
chapter, thirteenth verse — he prays, ''Hear Thou in
heaven, Thy dwelling-place."

If I was going off to Australia or Japan, or some other
foreign country, to spend the rest of my days, I would
want to know all about the climate and all about the so-
ciety. I would want to know all about the advantages
of that country, if I did not expect to live there more
than ten, fi fteen or twenty years. We know we do not
live but a little while. Life is but a vapor. It is but an
inch of time as eternal ages roll on. A few more rolling

334 MOODY S SERMONS.

suns, and we are landed into another world.

Now, the question is, who are we going to have for
society there? We are clearly taught in these passages,
and a good many others that God the Father is there,
and that he is a person, that He has a location, that He
lives in heaven, and that we shall see Him and be with
Him, because we find all through the Scriptures that
Christ is with the Father, and They are one and His
prayer was that His disciples might be with Him.

In the seventh chapter of Acts and the fifty-fifth verse
you will find that Christ is there. The disciples saw
Him when He went up. People say we should not look
upon God as being above us. Christ went up. A cloud
received Him out of their sight; and those men of Galilee
stood there gazing up into heaven. Two men came down,
and they said, " Why stand ye gazing up into heaven,
for this same Jesus whom ye seek was taken up from you
into heaven, and so shall He come in like manner.

Now, we find in the seventh chapter of Acts that Ste-
phen, the first martyr that laid down his life — that was
willing to seal his testimony with his blood — when they
were stoning him, and he was fighting, as it were, the
battle of life single-handed and alone, he was testifying
and there could not any one resist his testimony — it was
so perfectly overwhelming, so powerful; the mighty Spirit
of God resting upon him, they could not resist his testi-
mony; and while he was giving a clear testimony for the
Son of God, standing up here in this dark (world for
Christ, he saw heaven opened and he saw Christ sitting
at the right hand of God. I can imagine, as I see Ste-
phen fighting single-handed and alone, the Son of God
stood up to give him a welcome. He had not forgotten

HEAVEN. 335

his disciples down here. He is still interested in his
church on earth, and when Stephen gave such a good
confession, I can imagine that the Son of God stood up
to watch the conflict and to give him a welcome. Heaven
is not so far away, is it? It was not so far but that Ste-
phen could look from Jerusalem right into heaven. Some
people think that this was his imagination, but it was a
glorious imagination, was it not? Many men were fired
by Stephen's zeal to go and lay down their lives for the
gospel. Would to God we had men in these days that
had such courage for Christ that they would be willing to
die, if needs be, rather than give up the truth.

Now, we have Christ there. I believe that is what is
going to make heaven so attractive. It will not be the
jasper walls and the pearly gates, and its streets paved
with transparent gold. We know nothing about the kind
of gold they have up there. It is transparent gold and it
is very common. But that is not what is going to make
heaven so attractive. What will make heaven so at-
tractive will be the loved ones that are there. What is
it that makes your home and mine so dear? Is it because
we have them well furnished? Ah, that is not it. You
go up this avenue into the most gilded palace there, and
you take one, two or three out of the family, and it be-
comes a gilded sepulcher, and men say, "I don't want
to live there any longer; I have got tired of it." It is
not your beautiful grounds and your beautiful pictures on
the wall, your beautiful works of art, that make home.
That is not it. It is the loved ones that are there. I re-
member after being away from home sometime, I went
back to see my widowed mother and found her not at
home. I had longed to get there, but home had lost its

336 Moody's sermons.

charms. What did I care for home if mother was not
there? She was the loved one. And what is going to
make heaven so attractive are those that are there.
We shall see God who gave up His Son and see the Lord
Jesus himself. It seems to me, if God will permit me to
get one look at Him, it will pay me for all I have done
down here.

There was a friend telling me, when I was in Brooklyn
of a father whose wife was very sick, and their little
child was not old enough to understand about the sick-
ness, and it was troubling the mother, so they took the
child away to one of the neighbors. The child never had
been separated from the mother before that, and it kept
teasing to be taken home. The mother kept growing
worse and they could not take it home. At last, the
mother died, and they talked it over and thought it best
to let the child remember the mother as she saw her
alive, and the mother was buried without the child see-
ing her. They then took the child home, and the mo-
ment the child got into the house she ran into the parlor
and cried, " Mamma, mamma." But mamma was not
there; and she went from one room to another, all over
the house; went to the closet where her mother some-
times took her to pray, looked in there. Then she be-
gan to weep and said, " Take me back." Home had lost
all its sweetness, all its attraction. What would heaven
be without Christ? What would heaven be without God,
who gave up Christ for as? It is the loved ones that are
there. That is what will make heaven so attractive.

I think if we thought more of heaven and those that
are there we would not be so earthly minded. We
would remember that we are merely passing through

HEAVEN. 337

this earth; we will only be here a night, as it were; we
will soon be in another world.

But not only are we going to see God the Father and
Christ the Son there, but we are told that angels are
there. I have not got time to call your attention to many
passages, but we find, in the eighteenth chapter of Mat-
thew and the tenth verse, that Christ says, " Tha+ in
heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Fa-
ther which is in heaven. " We will have good society when
we get there. We will have the society of the angels,
not fallen angels, but those angels that are pure and holy.
Then in another place it says that the angels of heaven
do not know the time that God has appointed. And
then Gabriel, when Zachariah doubted his word — Ga-
briel had never been doubted before; he had come from a
world where there were no lies, no deception, no fraud;
and I suppose he did not understand Zachariah when he
doubted his word. Zachariah could not believe that he
was to be the father of John the Baptist, and he wanted
some token. "Why," says Gabriel, "I am Gabriel,
who standeth in the presence of the Almighty." He had
never been doubted before. " You want a token, do you?
Well, I will give it to you; you shall not speak until that
child is born." Struck dumb for nine months! Some
people want some other token, some other evidence that
God's word is true besides the Bible. Let us not ask for
any other token. God has said it; that is enough. Has
He not said it, and shall He not make it good? Take
away the Bible from the earth, and the earth becomes
dark as midnight.

Then, not only are the angels there, but I believe that
the saints, those that have died in Christ, are there.

338 Moody's sermons.

There is a class of people who say that the soul becomes
unconscious and sleeps until the resurrection. I cannot
believe that. There is another class of people who tell
us that in fact there is no hereafter at all, and that when
we die that is the last of us. I will not take up those
things now, but I just want to call your attention to a
few passages of Scripture that I think will help us. A
great many people are anxious to know where their
loved ones are, and whether we shall know them when
we see them again. There is one passage of Scripture
that settles that in my mind: ''I shall be satisfied when
I awake in His likeness." If I want to know my friends,
I will know them because He will satisfy me. There will
not be one solitary want that God will not gratify then.
Moses and Elias were known on the Mount of Transfig-
uration. They had not lost their identity. T think there
is no doubt about our knowing our friends there, and I
think we shall love them better there, and we shall be
forever with them. No separation takes place in that
city.

But now let us look at the twelfth chapter of John and
the twenty-sixth verse. "If any man serve Me let him
follow Me; and where I am, there shall also My servant
be; if any man serve Me, him will My Father honor."
Now, I do not think that death is going to separate us. I
do not think that I am going to be with Christ and work
for Him for twenty, or thirty, or forty years and then be
separated from Him. I believe the apostles are with
Him. They may not be satisfied yet, because they have
not got their resurrected bodies.

Let us turn to the seventeenth chapter of John and the
24th verse, that wonderful prayer, the last prayer that

HEAVEN. 339

He made here with His disciples. "Father, I will that
they also whom Thou hast given me, be with me where I
am; that they may behold my glory, which Thou hast
given me, for Thou lovedest me before the foundation of
the world." Now, if a man receive eternal life when he
is converted, and that is what God says he receives, how
are you going to bury eternal life in the grave? All the
undertakers in the world could not build a coffin big
enough to bury eternal life. That life cannot go into the
grave. That life cannot sleep until the resurrection. It
is life without end — eternal life, and that cannot die.
Death has had his hands on Jesus Christ once; he never
will have his hands on Him again. He tasted death once.
He conquered death. He bound him hand and foot. He
went down into the grave and overcame him. Now, if I
have got Christ's life in me, how is death going to touch
that life? It does not say that I am going to get eternal
life when I die, nor at the general resurrection. " He
that believeth on the Son hath life." I have not got to
wait. " He that believeth on the Son hath life." H-a-t-h
hath — present tense.

I think Paul did not have the idea that his soul was
going to be in the grave eighteen hundred years. His
body has been in. the grave now eighteen hundred years.
Do you think that a man that lived with his Master as
Paul did, and went through what he did, has been away
from the Lord and in an unconscious state these eighteen
hundred years? It don't sound like it when he wrote to
those Philippians, ''For I am in a strait betwixt two,
having a desire to depart and to be " — in the grave eigh-
teen hundred years? The idea of his soul going down
into the grave with those worms never entered his mind,

340 MOODY S SERMONS.

" For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to de-
part and to be with Christ, which is far better." Absent
from the body, present with the Lord. The day that
Nero took his head, the Son of God took his soul into
glory with Him. There is no doubt about that. " If this
earthly house is dissolved, I have a building, not made
with hands, eternal in the heavens." This idea that
death is going to separate us from the Master, we want
to dismiss now and forever.

I got a card some time ago from a friend of mine
in London, that lost a very dear mother; and instead of
putting on the card a black border, as most of those Eng-
lish people do, he put on gold. They talk about that
city being paved with gold . Why shouldn't we put on
gold instead of black? I think it is a great deal better.
His sainted mother had gone up on high. It says here
on this card:

O! call it not death, 'tis life begun,
For the waters are passed, and home is won;
The ransomed spirit hath reached the shore,
Where they weep and suffer and sin no more.

She is safe in her Father's house above,
In the place prepared by her Savior's love,
To depart from the world of sin and strife,
To be with Jesus, yes, this is life !

In that same letter he sent me another little card,
" The Voice from Heaven," as if his mother had spoken
back from that world. I suppose many of you have seen
it, but it is worth reading a good many times. I have
read it a number of times.

I shine in the light of God ;

His likeness stamps my brow,
Through the valley of death my feet have trod ;

I reign in glory now.

HEAVEN. 341

It we have friends that have gone over the river, let
us not be mourning, but let us go out and work for
the Master.

No breaking heart is here,

No keen and thrilling pain,
No wasted cheek where the frequent tear

Hath rolled, and left its stain.
I have reached the joys of heaven ;

I am one of the sainted band ;
For my head a crown of gold is given,

And a harp is in my hand.
I have heard the song they sing,

Whom Jesus hath set free.

Ah, think of that new song, the song of Moses and
the Lamb ! I am afraid, Mr. Sankey, they will not want
to hear you; that song will be much sweeter than any
you sing — that chorus of a hundred and forty thousand.
We must learn to like music down here. I pity a pro-
fessed Christian who does not like music. It is the only
thing we know of their doing up there. It is the occu-
pation of heaven.

I have heard the song they sing,

Whom Jesus hath set free ;
And the glorious walls of heaven ring

With my new born melody.
No sin, no grief, no pain,

Safe in my happy home,
My fears all fled, my doubts all slain,

My hour of triumph is come.
O friends of mortal years,

The trusted and '.he true,
Ye are watching still in the valley of tears,

But I wait to welcome you.
Do I forget ? O, no,

For memory's golden chain
Shall bind my heart to the hearts below

'Till they meet and touch again.

342 MOODY S SERMONS.

Each link is strong and bright,

And love's electric flame
Flows freely down, like a river of light,

To the world from whence I came.
Do you mourn when another star

Shines out from the glittering sky ?
Do you weep when the raging voice of war

And the storms of conflict die?
Then why should your tears run down,

And your hearts be sorely riven,
For another gem in the Savior's crown,

Another star in heaven ?

When that man sent me those little cards, I said,
' 'Really he has got the right idea. It is life after all.
She has just gone up there to live forever — gone into a
world where death can never come."

So if we take this idea of it, that a new life is simply
that we cannot die, cannot perish, that we are going to
live forever with Him, then we see that enemy is out of
the way. I had a little child in my Sunday-school dis-
trict, whose father and mother were infidels, and they
said to me the last time I was talking with them that
they didn't know where it was that child heard the name
of God, unless it was when the father blasphemed. The
little child was so young it could not speak its own name.
Its name was Julia. The friends were gathered around
its couch, and the little child, as they thought, had died,
and they stood there weeping. Its eyes were closed,
but all at once the little child opened them, when a
beautiful glow was noticed in them, and reaching up both
hands, she said, " Dulia is tumin', Dod, Dulia is tumin,"
and passed away. Who taught that little child there
was a God? I believe the Lord Jesus lifted the curtain,
and that little child saw God, saw the loving Father

HEAVEN. 343

ready to take it to His bosom. So, my friends, let us
believe that when our loved ones, our little ones, pass
away, the Savior has a place for them, and He will take
better care of them than we can, and they are with Him.

A friend was telling me some time ago, and it burned
into my heart as a father. He said a man had a son that
was sick, but he did not consider him dangerously ill. He
went down to the store as usual, and when he came home
at noon he found his wife weeping, and he said, ' ' What is
the trouble ?" She said, " There has been a great change
in our boy, since you left this morning. I am afraid it
is death. I wish you would go in and see him, for if it
is death I can't tell him." The mother thought the little
boy would be afraid of death. The father went in and
sat down on the edge of the bed and placed his hand up-
on the forehead of the boy. He could feel the cold, damp
sweat of night gathering, and he said to him, "My son,
do you know you are dying? " ' ' No, father; is this death I
feel stealing over me ?" " Yes, you are dying." "Will
I die to-day?" "Yes, my son, you cannot live until
night." The little fellow smiled and said, "I will be
with Jesus to-night, won't I, father ?" The father said
" Yes, my boy, you will be with the Savior to-night."
The father turned his head to conceal the tears. The
little boy saw the tears trickling down his father's face,
and he said, " Father, don't weep for me; when I get to
heaven, I will go right straight to Jesus, and I will tell
Him that, ever since I can remember, you have tried to
lead me to Him."

O, how sweet to have our children go away from
earth, feeling that there is One that will take care of them
and provide for all their wants, and keep them safe until

344 MOODY S SERMONS.

we get home! O, may God help us to live for heaven,
so that our children shall have confidence in what we
profess; that they may believe there is a future state;
that there is a heaven for them! And let me say, if
there is a father or mother here to-day that is without
Jesus Christ, that has no hope beyond the grave, won't
you just seek Him to-day, and set your heart and affec-
tions on things above?

The Heavenly Choir.

HEAVEN.

SECOND HEAVEN.

We find, in the tenth chapter of Luke and twentieth
verse, that the names of all the disciples are recorded
above. He sent out two-by-two " other seventy also."
They went into the different towns and villages. They
were elated with their success, and rejoiced, for the very
devils were subject to them. They were gifted with the
spirit of Almighty God. But Christ seems to have ob-
jected to this spirit of rejoicing in them. He says,
" Rather rejoice that your names are written in heaven."
Some say, " If we are not saved until the judgment day
how can our names be already written in heaven?" A
friend once told me that in China they had two books in
their courts, one that they called the book of death, and
the other the book of life; and whenever a criminal was
sentenced to death and 'executed, his name was put down
in the book of death, and when he is found not guilty his
name is recorded in the book of life.

Every man, woman and child in this audience to-day
have their names written in the book of death and the
book of life. When we are born of God, we pass from
death unto life. Now, as I said the other day, it is the
privilege of a child of God to know. Where there is
doubt about any important question, there can be no rest.
If you have a child sick, hanging in the balance between

347

348 MOODY'S SERMONS.

life and death, there is no rest, no peace, as long as you
are uncertain whether it will get well or not. If I get
on a train to go to a certain city, and I can not tell
whether the train is going to that or some other city,
there is no rest, no peace. And this idea that we can
not tell whether we are going to heaven or hell is a false
idea. The moment you begin to talk to some people
about names being written up in heaven, they turn up
their noses and say, " Don't talk about that stuff to me,
about names being written in heaven, as if they kept
books there. " When a man cavils, I always go right to
the word of God, and take my stand right on Scripture.
There is considerable in Scripture about names being
written in the book of life. I was amazed when I
came to hunt it up to find a passage in the prophecy of
Daniel about the book. If you will turn to the twelfth
chapter of the prophecy of Daniel and the first verse,
you will find, "And at that time shall Michael stand
up, the great prince which standeth for the children of
thy people, and there shall be a time of trouble, such as
never was since there was a nation even to that same
time; and at that time thy people shall be delivered,
every one that shall be found written in the book."

Then I find Paul writing down to those Philippians, at
Philippi, that town where they had given him such
cruel treatment, "And I entreat thee also, true yoke
fellow, help those women which labored with me in the
gospel, with Clement also, and with other, my fellow-
laborers, whose names are in the book of life."

It is not only our privilege so to live that other people
may know that our names are written in the book of
life.

HEAVEN. 349

I had a friend coming back from Europe a few years
ago, and as the party were coming down from London
to Liverpool, they made up their minds to go to the
Northwestern hotel. When they got there, they found
the hotel had been full for days, and they could not
accommodate them. My friend found all the company
taking up their satchels and starting off, and they said to
her, "Are you going with us over to this other hotel?"
' * No, " she said, " I am going to remain here." "Why,"
they said, "there is not any room; the hotel is full."
" O," she said, " I have got a room." " How did you
get it?" "Why, I sent my name on ahead." That is
just what Christians are doing. They are sending their
names on ahead. They are giving a little thought to
the other life. There is another life beyond this, and
what Christians are doing is taking a little thought about
the future, and not spending all their time and energy
upon things of time. Everything that we seek, every-
thing that we handle down here is transitory, but the
things of the world to which we are going will endure
forever.

Now, I want to call attention to a few more passages
about names being written in the book of life. Revela-
tion, thirteenth chapter, eighth verse, ' ' And all that dwell
upon the earth shall worship him," that is, anti-Christ,
"whose names are not written in the book of life of
the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." That
dividing line is going to be drawn by-and-by. Then it
will appear who is for God, and who is against Him; and
every man whose name is not written in the book of
life will bow down to the anti-christ, the beast, and
worship him. The quicker that time comes the better.

35° Moody's sermons.

I am tired of seeing people trying to be on both sides of
this question. I believe we are suffering more to-day
from people inside of the church, unconverted, than from
any other class of people; people who profess to be dis-
ciples of Jesus Christ, and yet are living in the world,
like the world, and for the world, and who care for noth-
ing else.

There is another passage I want to call your attention
to, Revelation, twentieth chapter, twelfth verse, "And 1
saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and
the books were opened, which is the book of life; and
the dead were judged out of those things which were
written in the books, according to their works. " That is
a judgment of stewardship. One shall be made ruler
over five cities, and another over ten; and I am afraid
some will not have any; they will just barely get into the
kingdom of God and get life; that is all you can say.
They will get into heaven as Lot got out of Sodom, by
the skin of his teeth. His works were all burned up.
There are a good many Lots and Sodoms at the present
time. You will not have to go out of this city to find
them. Everything they have done, everything they do,
is going to be lost. They are time-servers. They can-
not look beyond this life.

Then again, in the twenty-first chapter of Revelation,
twenty-seventh verse, we read, " And there shall in no
wise enter into it anything that defileth, neither whatso-
ever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie." It is
astonishing to hear people talk. Only yesterday I heard
people say they were going to heaven without regenera-
tion, without being born of the Spirit, without being
converted. In other words, they might just as well say,

HEAVEN. 351

" I am going to heaven whether God will have me there
or not." If a man does not give up his skepticism, his
unbelief, his sin, he cannot enter that city. These are
almost the last words in Scripture, the last chapter but
one, "And there shall in no wise enter into it anything
that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination,
or maketh a lie, but they which are written in the Lamb's
book of life." It is a very important question. It is a
question we ought to have settled in our minds. "Is my
name written in the book of life?" " O, well," you
may say, " my name is on the church record." I think
a good many people have their names on the church rec-
ord that have not got them in the book of life. You
may have your name on twenty church records and not
have it in the Book of Life. The question is, have I
been born of the Spirit? Have I been born again? Have
I been born from above? Have I passed from death unto
life? If I have not, it is clearly taught that I will not
enter into the kingdom of God. " Except your right-
eousness exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and
Pharisees, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of
God." That is what Christ said to the moralists of His
day. " Except ye become converted, and become as a
little child" (that is, really nothing in your own sight),
"ye cannot see the kingdom of God." Heaven, some
one has said, is filled with twice-born people; born of the
flesh and born of the spirit.

We are told in this blessed book what causes joy in
heaven. What causes joy in heaven is one sinner repent-
ing, one sinner being born into the kingdom of God.
Only think, that a man or woman, or even a little child,
that is here in this audience to-day may cause joy in
heaven by repenting and turning to God.

352 MOODY S SERMONS.

The next thing we have got in heaven is the treas-
ures. We will turn now to the sermon on the mount.
You will find out what Christ says about treasures.
4 ' Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where
moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break
through and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in
heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and
where thieves do not break through nor steal; for
where your treasure is there will your heart be also."
If our treasures are earthly, we will be earthly minded;
if our treasures are heavenly, we will be heavenly mind-
ed. It does not take more than ten minutes to find out
where a man's treasure is. Talk to a man who has his
heart set on money, and tell him about some business
that he can go into to make a few hundred dollars; see
how quick his eye will light up. Talk to a politician;
tell him how he can get a seat in the United States sen-
ate; see his eye light up. It does not take long to tell
where a man's heart is. His heart is where is treasure
is. If his treasure is down here, you can soon tell. Talk
to a lady of fashion, one of what they call the upper ten,
that is, the world's idea of the upper ten. The upper
ten, the best circle, is really up there around the throne.
It is not down here on your avenues. The best people
that ever trod this earth are in heaven; they are with
the King. Take this so-called upper ten and talk to
them about the latest fashion, the latest style of dressing
the hair, the latest fashion of dress and clothes, and see
their eye light up. They will talk about these things
for hours; their hearts are there. But the fashion of
this world passes away. If a man sets his heart upon
anything on this earth, he is going to be disappointed.

HEAVEN. 353

The reason this country to-day is so full of disappointed
people is because they have been building for time in-
stead of for eternity.

A bedridden saint, one of those saints that God is pol-
ishing up for his temple, was lying upon her bed watch-
ing the birds as they came in the spring to build their
nests, and one bird came and built its nest so very low
that every day she said, " O bird, build higher, build
higher." But she could not make the bird understand,
and it went on and built its nest very low. After the
little birds were hatched, she watched the mother bird
feed them. One morning she looked out and saw that
the nest was torn to pieces. The cat had destroyed it
and killed the old bird and the young ones. What you
and I want to do is to build higher.

Let us look at the first four verses of the third chap-
ter of Paul's letter to the Colossians. " If ye then be
risen with Christ, seek those things which are above,
where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your
affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For
ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.
When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye
also appear with Him in glory." That is what Scrip-
ture teaches. When our soldiers were in the army, they
never thought of building palaces down there in the
south. A tent was good enough for them. Now, you
and I are pilgrims. We are travelers; we are only here
a little while, and a tent is good enough for us. That is
all Abraham had. The well-watered plains of Sodom
had no temptation for him. He had something better.
I pity those men who are building these very fine man-

354 MOODY S SERMONS.

sions and laying the foundation so deep and broad, as
though they were to live forever. About the time they
get ready to move in, they are called away. Some of
them are called away before they get in. They have gone
to another world.

When I was out on the Pacific coast, the first Sunday
I was there I went to Sunday-school. It was a very
rainy day, and but few children were there. The super-
intendent said to me that as so few were there bethought
he would dismiss the school, and asked me if I didn't
think it was a good idea. I told him I thought not; that
we ought to make it interesting for those that did come.
Then he said the teachers were not there. I told him
to put them all in one class. He asked me if I would
teach it. I asked him what the lesson was, and found it
was this passage, "Lay up treasures for yourselves in
heaven." I thought anybody could talk upon that, espe-
cially in California. There was a blackboard there, and
I had written upon it, first, a list of earthly treasures as
they were named by the school. I asked what the peo-
ple of California thought most of. They said "Gold,"
so we put down gold. "Anything else?" "Land."
"Put down land." "What else?" " Houses." "What
else?" "Pleasure." "Put down pleasure." "What
else?" "Honor." "Yes, that is correct. Put down
honor. Any others?" Some one said, " Business," and
that was put down. " Anything else?" One little fel-
low said, "Rum." I said, " Put that down." You laugh
at it, but there are many men that will sell heaven with
all its glory for a rumbottle. They worship a rumbot-
tle. You will not have to go out of this city to find men
who bow down to a rumbottle. Then they went on

HEAVEN. 355

naming other things, fast horses. That is a treasure.
Some men think more of fast horses than they do of the
kingdom of God.

" Now," I said, "let us look at the heavenly treasures
and put them opposite. What is the very sweetest thing
there is in heaven?" One little boy, with his eyes dan-
cing in their sockets, said, "Jesus." "That is right," I
said; " we will put Him at the head of the list." " What
is the next?" "Angels." I said, "Put that down.
What next?" "The river of life, the crown, the crown
of righteousness, the crown of glory, mansions," and so
on, naming the many treasures. There was one teacher
in that Sunday-school that was there who was an uncon-
verted young man. He said he had come to California
to make a fortune, and he said after we had all those
treasures written down on the blackboard, " How blind
I have been! I have been seeking for earthly treasures,
and neglecting those heavenly treasures." And he was
converted that very hour.

Some time ago when I was going to New Orleans, two
ladies got on the same train I did at Chicago, and took
seats behind me. One of the ladies lived at Cairo, and
the other at New Orleans; and the Cairo lady became
very much attached to the New Orleans lady, and when
we arrived at Cairo she said, "I wish you would stop
over at Cairo and spend a few days with me." "Well,'
the other lady replied, " I would like to, I would enjoy
your society very much, but my trunks have all gone on
the train ahead of me, and I haven't got clothes I would
like to appear in society in. These clothes are good
enough to travel in, you know." Ah, I took a hint.
These clothes are good enough to travel in any how. I

356 Moody's sermons.

am on my way to heaven, and took in this city on my
route. We only stay here for a night, and pass on. We
are traveling to the New Jerusalem. On a tombstone
there was a beautiful thought. "The inn of a traveler
to the New Jerusalem." We are travelers to the New
Jerusalem, and if we don't find everything down here
just as we want it, we shall be satisfied then. We can
afford to wait. We need not borrow trouble about life
here. We want to lay up treasures in heaven.

People make a mistake when they think the church is
a place of rest. We are going to rest by-and-by. We
don't want to be talking about rest down here.

I want to call your attention next to the fact that our
reward is in heaven, and not here. God's people make
the great mistake of looking for a reward down here.
They are still looking for a reward down here. Let us
remember that the reward is beyond. I have noticed
that that is the case with almost every one of God's peo-
ple; they look for reward down here. God does not pro-
pose to reward his children here. He is to reward them
up yonder. We are to work here. When we are done
He will say, "Well done, good and faithful servant,
enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." You will then
have a seat at His right hand. The reward will be great,
He says. If God calls the reward great, what kind of a
reward will it be? If the great God says so, won't it be a
wonderful reward? Instead of looking for reward and
honor here, let us look beyond for it. See what Paul says
to Timothy, " For there will be for me a crown." He
did not look for his crown here.

When I read the life of Paul, it makes me ashamed of
the Christianity of the present day. Talk about what

HEAVEN. 357

we have suffered! Talk about what we have done! I
think it would do every member of the church good to
spend six months reading the life of Paul, and to see
what he had to go through. He had been beaten four
times, and received thirty-nine stripes upon the bare
back. If one of us should get even one stripe now, how
many volumes would be written on the martyrdom?
What a whine there would be! It was nothing for Paul
to be beaten with thirty-nine stripes. Did any one say
to Paul, " You have been beaten already four times be-
fore, and now they are going to bring that scourge upon
your back as many times again, perhaps; had you not
better go off down to Europe, and rest for six months
until this persecution dies out?" The appeal would pass
him by unheeded. "I have but one aim, one thing to
hope for. I press toward the mark of my high calling in
Christ Jesus." These earthly afflictions, what were they?
He never complained of them. Instead of giving up his
opinions and his hope, he was willing to stand his stripes
and his miseries, again and again. And it was no trifling
matter, these beatings he received. Yet he received
them all, and would not deny the faith that the mercy
and power of God had wrought in him. If you allow me
the expression, the devil had his match when he got
hold of Paul. Not all he could do would give him the
upper hand of Paul, and separate him from the love of
God. He had his reward in view; and he always, scorn-
ing what the world could do to him, pressed toward that
reward. He knew that all his sufferings here would be
wiped away, and joy and peace be his when he wore the
crown for which he had so bravely fought. And how
many are working for these crowns at the present day?

358 Moody's sermons.

How much would they suffer now for a like reward that
awaited this mighty warrior? His enemies one time took
him out and stoned him like the martyr Stephen. Think
of the torment he experienced, the pain that he must
have suffered, as these stones were hurled at him. So
great was the anger of those who were thus around him,
that they left him for dead when they got through with
him. See his head all swollen up; see the bruises upon
his body and his limbs; see the ugly scars and the gaping
wounds that he carried. He was hardly brought to life
again; and for a long time thereafter you could see him
with his injured head and black eye on the corners of
the streets, and yet not frightened by any means, but
preaching the glorious gospel of his God and Master
Jesus Christ. He went to Corinth, was not afraid, but
preached there for eighteen months; and in all his minis-
trations, and in all this, he had to rely upon himself.
He had no influential committee to meet him on his ar-
rival at the station, and conduct him to a fine hotel, and
make all the arrangements about his expenses. There
was no station in those days; when he did arrive, he came
unannounced and on foot. And instead of a splendid
hotel to go to, his first care was to go himself, walk
around all the streets and find cheap lodgings, in some
alley, where he could go after he had left off preaching
for the day to make tents, to which trade he had been
brought up. And then, after all his preaching, and all
his labors, what reward did he receive? Well, there was
a sort of a committee, and they said they would pay him
off. Did they give him some testimonial and a large
sum in money then? What they did do instead of pre-
senting him with, say a thousand dollars in gold, this

HEAVEN. 359

committee that I speak of took him down to a cross street
and gave him thirty-nine stripes. That is the way they
paid him off. That was the way they treated this
mighty fighter, a preacher that turned the world upside
down.

Talk about Alexander making the world tremble at the
tread of his armies! Talk about Napoleon shaking the
world to its center, when the powers knew he had
gathered his army round about him! Why, these have
all passed away; but the words of Paul, of the despised
tent-maker, make the world tremble even to this day.
He talks about being in peril among robbers. Well,
what did the robbers find on him? No money, no jewelry,
nothing. What treasures he had, he had placed them
above their reach, he had put them in heaven, where
thieves do not break through or steal. The robbers got
nothing from him, though he was richer than any man at
the present day. Not a man who has lived since Paul is
richer than he was. Three times, again he says, he
suffered shipwreck; also a day and a night he was in the
deep. He had been subjected to perils by water, to
perils of robbers, to perils brought about by his own
countrymen. Besides these, he experienced perils of the
wilderness; perils among false brethren — ah! that must
have been the hardest. He was weary, he was in pain;
but none of these things moved him. Thank God, the
apostle was a warrior; and would to God the church had
a thousand like him at the present day. Nothing was
able to battle him down. Not even the newspaper of
the day, if they had one, pitching into him every day,
would have caused him a moment's thought. It might
have called him a poor, deluded man, might have said

360 Moody's sermons.

to him, " 0 you poor fool." For none of these things
did he care. He looked above and beyond them. He
knew there was a glorious reward awaiting him.

And so the mighty warrior went on to fight for his
Master. But at last he had to flee; and to escape, he
was let down the walls in a basket. He goes to fight
elsewhere. Driven out of one place, he does not de-
spair; and that is the spirit we want to-day. He was
always willing to receive the stripes and the torments,
and to suffer everything the world could heap upon him
for the cause of Christ. His enemies again gave him
thirty-nine stripes. Well, he was used to it. His back
had not perhaps got well before he received this punish-
ment. After they had got through with him, they cast
him and Silas into prison. No sooner had they got in,
instead of being frightened at what they had received, they
began to worship the God for whom they had suffered.
Paul says to Silas, "Come, Silas, let us praise God and
have prayers." And they opened their worship by sing-
ing, perhaps, the forty-sixth psalm. After that they had
prayers, and called upon God for his protection. And
as soon as they had said "Amen," their God responded
to their cries of help, and the whole prison shook, and
there was a great commotion. Yes, that was a queer
place to sing praises in, a prison; and it was just after he
had received the stripes. Why, I dare say if Mr. Sankey
should have only one stripe upon his naked back, he
would not feel much like singing! But this man had re-
ceived thirty-nine. He was as much at home with his
God in prison, as he was out of it. He could praise him
as well behind bolts and bars as he could in the syna-
gogue. He knew what his reward would be. He knew

HEAVEN. 361

the grave would be his immediate reward; but he had
faith in the great hereafter; he had a crown and a reward
that would not pass away. Yes, do you think that God
would let him suffer like that without rewarding him? If
we suffer persecution for Christ's sake, great will be our
reward. Paul's sufferings were the cause of the conver-
sion of the Philippian jailer. I suppose he was the first
convert in Europe.

Look at him again in Rome. The time had come for
his departure; Nero had signed the order for his execu-
tion; and he is being taken out to be beheaded. Ask
him now, at this moment, when death is but little way
off, if he is sorry that he has suffered for the Son of God.
Ask him if he would like to recant to save his head. I
can imagine how he would look if you should ask him
such a question as that. They are going to take him
two miles out of the city to the place of execution. He
walks with a steady, unfaltering step. He wavers not,
nor looks aside. His gaze is fixed upon the reward of
his high calling in Christ Jesus. And he writes to his
friend Timothy, " Henceforth there is laid up for me a
crown." You could not shake him in his faith. Thank
God, at this dread moment, he kept his word with Jesus.
He had never preached any false doctrine. He had only
preached Christ crucified, and had manfully fought under
his banner like a faithful soldier, to this, the end of his
life. " Good-by,"youcan imagine him saying to Timothy;
" henceforth there is laid up for me a crown, and I am
going to win it." Ashe walked through the streets of
Rome, I tell you Rome never had such a conqueror.
Not all her mighty men of war, nor all her generals and
statesmen and orators, had risen to the supreme height

362 Moody's sermons.

that Paul had reached at this moment. He was going
to receive a prize that would eclipse all the trophies of
of war, and wit, and learning. But at last he approaches
the fatal spot. He is placed in the position that he had
to take; the executioner makes him ready, and at the
given signal the blow descends, his head comes off, and
his spirit is lifted into the golden chariot, and is borne to
the pearly gates of heaven. As he approaches the celes-
tial portals, the battlements of heaven are crowded with
the saints that Paul by his preaching had sent before him.
Ah, how they welcome him! He is borne on, toward
the great white throne to receive his reward. The bells
of heaven are set a-ringing, and hosannas are chanted
by the choir of paradise. He comes near the throne,
and he hears the great voice saying, " Well done; good
and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord,"
and the saints now gather around him, and greet, and
bear witness for him to the Master he had so faithfully
served. One would say, " That sermon that you preached
to the Galatians wrought a change of heart in me, and I
have been chosen to take my place among the elect."
Another would say, ' ' That lecture that you delivered at
Thessalonica converted me." Another, "Paul, that ap-
peal that you made at Corinth touched my wicked soul;
I began to worship the Jesus whom you preached, and
here I am among the angels." O, what a reward was
that! Was it not worth all the cares, troubles, anxieties,
sufferings, torments, and death he had gone through?
Men murmur at the little crosses they have to endure
here; but they forget that if they be faithful the Lord will
reward them by-and-by.

Jesus Healing the Sick.

WHAT SEEK YE ?

I have for my subject this afternoon a question, a com-
mand and an invitation. In the first chapter of John and
the thirty-eighth verse, it is related that Christ turned to
two of John the Baptist's disciples, about four o'clock in
the afternoon, who were following Him, and said to them,
4 'What seek ye ?" The first words that fell from the lips
of the Son of God, as He commenced His ministry — that
is John's account of it — were, " What seek ye ?"

There were all classes of people following Christ while
He was upon earth. There were some that went to see
Him just out of a morbid curiosity; they had no other
motive. There were some who went for the fishes and
the loaves. There was another class that followed Him
that they might get mere temporal relief ; that they might
get some friend healed. Then there was another class
followed Him that they might entangle Him in some con-
versation; they were constantly putting difficult ques-
tions to Him in hopes that they might get Him to say
something against the law of Moses that they might con-
demn Him and put Him to death. There were some
that went just to see, and others that went to be seen.
Here and there were some that followed Him for just

365

366 Moody's sermons.

what He was to them, and they always got a blest ing.

Now, I contend that all the men and women in this city
are seeking something. The question that I want to
press home on you to-day is, ''What seek ye ?" What
brought you out here this afternoon ? I venture to sav
if this audience could be sifted to find out who had come
to get a blessing, it would be found to be a very smal*
number ; there would be vacant chairs enough ; then?
would be no trouble about room for the people that want'
ed to come.

Although eighteen hundred years have rolled a^aj
since Christ put that question to those disciples, huma<
nature has not changed. You will find the same cijssej
now; there are some that have come just out of curiosity,
just merely to see and to be seen. Some have come
because they have been persuaded by a godly mother to
come. They do not come because they wanted tc, but
because a mother, or a wife, or a little child had per-
suaded them, and they have come just to please them.

One man in Philadelphia got up at the young converts'
meeting and said he did not come to hear the preaching
or the singing. He said that a friend of his got there one
night at the opening of the depot building, and he said
he thought it was a remarkable scene to see eleven
thousand chairs all vacant. He said he would like to
see eleven thousand chairs in one building. So he went
up late in the afternoon or early in the evening. He
was the first one there, and the moment the doors were
open he rushed in to see the empty chairs. That was
what brought him there. Pretty high motive, wasn't
it ? He was a drinking man. The text that night was,
" Where art thou ?" and he saw something else before

WHAT SEEK YE ? 367

the meeting was over. He saw himself a poor, blind,
miserable, wretched sinner. I hope some one that has
come here to-day out of curiosity will get his eyes
opened, and if you do, you may get something you did
not come for, something worth more than all this world
to you.

When we were in London, a man was going by Agri-
cultural Hall, and it was raining pretty hard, and he
dropped in just to get out of the rain, and the word
reached him where he stood, and he was convicted and
converted.

It is astonishing what motives bring a class of people
together. You know and God knows what brought you
here. What is the motive ? Have you come merely to
gratify curiosity ? Have you come to gratify some
friends ? ' ' What seek ye ?"

I can imagine some of you say, ' ' I did not come here
to hear you preach. I came to hear the singing. I am
very fond of music, and I would like to hear the singing,
and I just wish that I was out of here ; I don't like
sermons; I just hate them." Well, I am glad you
came for that motive, and I am thankful there is gospel
enough in some of these hymns to save you. So if you
did not come for any higher motive than to see or be
seen, or hear the singing, we are glad to see you. But
if you just change the motive and say, " I want a bless-
ing; I want God to bless me; I want Him above
everything else," this will be the happiest day you ever
spent on earth.

Now let us take the question home. What brought
us here? "What seek ye?" Have you come to get
Jesus Christ ? If you have, you can find Him. You

368 Moody's sermons.

have not got to go up to bring Him down. You have
not got to go down to bring Him up. He is right
here.

I want to tell you another thing. It is a command for
you to seek Him, and I want to lay that command
right across every man's path here to-day. "Seek first
the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all things
else shall- be added." what man puts first, God puts
last ; or, reversed, what God puts first, man puts last.

If I should ask a good many of you to-day why you
do not seek the kingdom of God, you would make me
this answer, "Well, I have a good many other things
to attend to. My business has got to be looked after;
times are hard; times have been hard for the last five
years; and don't you know, Mr. Moody, a man is worse
than an infidel if he don't provide for his family ?" So
he is; no doubt about that, bat then here is a com-
mand. God never makes any mistakes. He does not
command us to do something that He does not give us
power to do. If He commands all men now everywhere
to repent, He means it. If he commands me to seek
first the kingdom of God, I am to seek it first; I am to
do that above everything else.

I am one of those that firmly believe that a man is
just as good a business man in whom the kingdom of
God is set up, as a man that goes on serving the world,
living for the world. I believe a man is not fit to live —
is not qualified for business — until he has obeyed God.
I believe God turns the ways of the wicked upside down,
and hedges up their way. Some one will say, " I have
seen some of the wickedest men in this country get very
rich." So have I. But then a man may get very rich,

WHAT SEEK YE ? 369

and not be very prosperous after all. All is not gold
that glitters. A man may have great wealth and not
have contentment. A man may have great wealth and
not have peace of mind. A may may have great wealth
and be a stranger to rest. If I wanted to find a skeleton,
I would go up here on your fine avenues, into some of
those fine palaces there. You have not got to go down
into your brothels and dark dens of iniquity, and your
wretched homes, made dark by sin. You will find them
there, I admit; but you will find them also in the homes
of the fashionable, and in the palaces of the wealthy.
There is hardly a family in the city that has not a skele-
ton in it. I believe that the reason that there is so much
darkness and misery in this world is because men and
women go contrary to what God tells them. About the
last thing a man thinks of seeking is the kingdom of God.
If you talk with a great many, they will say they must
attend to their business. They will tell you that when
they get settled in life and have time, then they will at-
tend to their soul's interests.

Now, when we start out in life, it is better that we
start right. When God tells me to run, I am to run.
When He tells me to walk, I am to walk. If He tells
me to believe, I am to believe. If He tells me to seek
first the kingdom of God, I must do it. No man or woman
is justified in going out of this hall to-day without seeking
the kingdom of God. If you go out of this hall without
doing it, you trample one of God's commands under your
feet. Some people think they never break a command-
ment. We have something besides the decalogue. This
commandment is just as binding as the commandment,
44 Thou shalt not steal." It is a command from God,

370 M00DYS SERMONS.

" Seek ye first the kingdom of God." Man says, " I will
not do it. I will seek for pleasure. I will seek for
wealth. I will seek for honor. I will seek for fame. I
will seek for everything else before I will seek the king-
dom of God." Is not that true? Don't we see that all
around us? They are just living in disobedience. You
know if you have a child that disobeys you, you will not
want that child to prosper. You do not want your child
to prosper in disobedience. But when a child is obedient,
then you love to see the child prosper. Now, as long as
we live in disobedience to God, how can we expect to
prosper? I do not believe we would have had these hard
times if it had not been for sin and iniquity. Look at
the money that is drank up! The money that is spent
for tobacco ! That is ruining men — ruining their con-
stitutions. We live in a land flowing with milk and
honey. God has blessed this nation; yet men complain
of hard times. I tell you there is nothing so extravagant
as sin. If a man would seek the kingdom of God first, you
would not be troubled much about the things of this
world. You would not be troubled about your clothing
and about what you would eat. That is about all we
need. You may have the wealth of this world, but you can't
take a penny away with you. You hear it said that a man
died worth millions. The fact is, when he dies he is not
worth anything. The wealth that a man may have then
is not of this world. Lay up treasures in heaven, not
down here. You may have millions here and enter eter-
nity a beggar if you have not become rich toward God.

I remember, a number of years ago, I was working
out in the field. It was before I left home, and I was a
little wild in those days. A man told me something I

WHAT SEEK YE ? 37 1

did not understand; it was a mystery. We were hoeing
corn, and I noticed he was weeping. Says I, " What is
the trouble ?" and he went on and told me. It sounded
strange then. I did not understand it. He said when
he left home to make his fortune it was a beautiful morn-
ing when he left his mother's door, and she gave him
this text of Scripture, " Seek first the kingdom of God
and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added
unto you." He said he paid no attention to it. He said
there were no railroads in those days, and he had to
walk. He walked from town to town, and the first
Sunday he was away he went into a little country church,
and the minister got up and preached from the text,
" Seek first the kingdom of God." He said to himself,
"That is my mother's text. I wonder if that man knows
me." He thought he was preaching it for him. But he
said to himself that he was not going to seek the king-
dom of God yet; that he was going to get rich, and when
he got rich and was settled down in life he was going to
attend to his soul's interest, just exactly what God told
him not to do. He said the sermon made a deep im-
pression upon him, but that he had made up his mind
that he would not seek God then. He could not get any
work in that town, and he went to another, and another,
and at last he got some work, and he went to church in
the town, and he hadn't been going there a great while
before he heard a sermon from the text, " Seek first the
kingdom of God and His righteousness. " He thought God
was calling him, and the sermon and the text made a
deep impression on his mind, but he calmly and deliber-
ately said, "I will not seek the kingdom" of God now;
I will wait until I get rich. " He said, he finally got through

372 Moody's sermons.

working in that town, and he went to „ another, and at
last he got work in another town. He said he went to
church, he went because his mother had taught him; he
said he didn't feel easy whe i he stayed away; he said he
did not go to get any blessing; just went because he was
educated to go. What was his surprise, he said, when
the minister got up in the pulpit and preached from the
text, " Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteous-
ness, and all these things shall be added unto you." He
said he thought surely God was calling him; and he said
the spirit strove mightily with him; but he just fought it,
made up his mind that he would not become a Chris-
tian until he had become settled in life; and he said that
all the sermons he heard since made no more of an im-
pression on him than on that stone, and he struck it with
a hoe. It seemed to him as if the spirit of God had left
him. But I could not talk to him. I was a stranger to
Christ. But soon after I went off to Boston. When I
was converted, almost the first man that came into my
mind was that neighbor, and I made up my mind when
I went home I would talk with him and tell him about
the Savior. When I got home I made inquiries, and my
mother said, ''Why, didn't I write you about him?''
"Write me what ?" "Why, he has gone to the insane
asylum, and if any of the neighbors go up to see him, he
will point his finger at him and say, "Young man, seek
first the kingdom of God and His righteousness." Reason
had reeled and tottered from its throne, but the text was
still there. God had sent that arrow down into his soul.
Long years had rolled away and he could not draw it out
of his soul. The next time I went home, they told me
he was up on his farm, that he was idiotic. I went up

WHAT SEEK YE ? 373

to his house, and found him in the rocking-chair; he was
rocking backwards and forwards, and as I spoke to him
he gave me that idiotic look, that vacant look; and I
called him by name, and said, " Don't you know me ?"
He pointed his finger at me and said, "Young man,
seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. "
He did not know me; mind all gone, but the text still
there. A little while after he died. He lies slumbering
in the cemetery where my father is buried, and when I
go to visit that cemetery, as I go by that grave, it seems
as if I could hear that text coming up from that grave,
"Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness,
and all these things shall be added unto you. " My friends,
you and I cannot afford to disobey God. We cannot
afford to calmly and coolly and deliberately say, " I will
not obey." Look around us. Men are snatched away
suddenly, and they just pass into eternity. Look at that
accident only a few hours ago on the Michigan Central,
that night train passing on with great rapidity, and in
a moment they passed into eternity.

My friend, if you sleep to-night without seeking the
kingdom of God, you are disobeying God. It is a com-
mand from God Almighty to every soul here. We have
no right to defer it; no right to say that we will seek the
kingdom of God to-morrow. To-morrow does not be-
long to us. To-day, now, is the day of salvation.

You will find in the fifty-fifth chapter of Isaiah; "Seek
ye the Lord while He may be found. Call ye upon Him
while He is near." It is not to seek feeling. It is not
to seek a sentiment, nor some dogma, nor some creed,
but it is to seek the Lord Himself. " Seek ye the Lord
while He may be found. Call ye upon Him while He is

374 Moody's sermons.

near. That is the exhortation. God exhorts you to
seek Him while He may be found.

Some one may ask, ' ' How seek Him ?" Seek Him
with your heart, not with your head. The trouble with
a great many is, they seek Him with their head, and
they never find Him. It is not a new head, but a new
heart we want. What do you mean by seeking God with
your heart? I will tell you. When a man goes into a
thing with his heart, you can soon tell it. He will be in
earnest. Go into the gold regions, and you will find that
the miners down in the mines have their hearts there.
They are terribly in earnest. Go learn a lesson of the
world. See how men seek for wealth! Look at these
politicians over the state of Ohio. They can hardly wait
until the Sabbath rolls away to begin their work to-mor-
row. We want men to seek their soul's salvation as they
seek for wealth. There is one thing that the Lord hates,
and that is half-heartedness. No man ever found God
with half a heart.

I said to a man some time ago, ' ' I will tell you when
you will be converted. I can tell you the day and the
hour." "Well, I would like to have you. I didn't know
that you were a prophet." "Well," says I, "I am not
a prophet, but I can tell you when you will be converted."
"I would like to have you." " Well," says I, "when
you search for God with all your heart, you will find him
and not before." O my friends, if God is worth having,
He is worth seeking for with all your hearts, and when
men seek Him with all their hearts they find Him.

I am tired of hearing people talk about not having any
objection to being saved. I said to a man some time ago,
"Are you a Christian?" " No." "Well, wouldn't you

WHAT SEEK YE ? 375

like to be ?" "Well," said he, " I have no objection."
''Well," said I, "you will never find Him with that
spirit. God never adopts men with that spirit." I tell
you that if we are going to get into the kingdom of God,
we have got to be in earnest.

I read an account some time ago of a vessel being wrecked
at sea, and there were not enough lifeboats for all on
board of the vessel; and some were swimming around in
the water trying to get into lifeboats, and one man, with
a great effort, swam to a boat and reached out his right
hand. They said they did not dare to take any more in.
They begged him to let go, but he would not. You know
how a drowning man will grasp at a straw. A man took
a sword and cut off the man's hand, and the man swam
up the second time, and he laid hold of that boat with
his left hand, and they cut off the left hand; and with
both hands cut off he swam up to that boat again and
seized it with his teeth. It touched their hearts. They
could not cut his head off, and they drew him into the
boat. He saved his life because he was in earnest. If
it is the right hand, off with it. If it is the right eye, out
with it. The kingdom of God is worth more than all the
world. O, may God wake us up to-day, and show us
the importance of seeking the kingdom of God with all
our hearts.

Now, I want to ask this audience this question: Do you
believe that the Lord can be found here to-day? Do you
believe that a sinner, a man that has been at enmity with
God for twenty years, can come in here to-day and find
the Lord precious to his soul? Do you believe that? Do
you men believe that? Do you ministers believe it? If
men will seek Him with all their hearts, they can find Him

376 Moody's sermons.

before they go out of this building. Do you believe that?
Do you believe you can get eternal life and live with God
forever by just seeking for it? You profess to believe it,
but you do not believe it. If you did, you would seek for
it. If Jehovah should send Gabriel down here to say to
any one in this building, that you might have any one
thing you might ask for, I venture to say there would be
only one cry, a cry that would ring through the building,
" Eternal life!" Everything else would fly into the dim
past. You would not ask for money. If there was only
one thing to ask for, you would ask for eternal life. It
is a great thing to live forever. There is not anything
to be compared with eternal life. Now, if eternal life can
be found here to-day by asking for it, would you not ad-
vise every man, woman and child in this house to seek
the kingdom of God? O my friends, seek ye the Lord!
He has been seeking for you these many years. Seek
Him with your heart, and you will find Him.

The Star in The East. Matthew, ii, 1-12.

BLESSED HOPE.

I have selected for my subject this afternoon the
blessed hope. We are told to be ready to give a reason
for the hope we have within us, and what we want to do
is to find out what our hope is. I believe there are a
-great many people that are hoping and hoping, when
they have no ground for hope. I don't know of any
better way to find out whether we have a true ground for
the hope we have within us than to look in Scripture to
see what the Scripture has to say.

Now, faith is one thing, and hope is another. When
hope takes the place of faith, it is a snare. Faith is to
work and to trust. Some one has said that life is to en-
joy and obey and be like God; but hope is to wait and
trust; to wait and expect; in other words, that hope is
the daughter of faith. I heard a very godly man once
say that joy was like the larks, that sang in the morn-
ing when it was light, but hope was like the nightingale,
that sang in the dark; so that hope was really better than

joy-
Most anyone can sing in the morning when everything

is bright, and everything going well; but hope sings in

the dark, in the mist and the fog, looks through all the

mist and darkness into the clear day. Faith lavs hold

of what is in the Scripture, faith is laying hold of that

which is within the veil, and what is in heaven for us.

379

380 Moody's sermons.

Now, we cannot get on any better without hope than
we can without faith. The farmer who sows his seed,
sows it in the hope of a harvest; the merchant buys his
goods in the hope to find customers, and the student toils
in the hope that he will reap by-and-by.

Now, I want to call your attention to the three classes
of people that are gathered here to-day. They are those
that have no hope, those that have a false hope, and those
that have a good hope. I do not know that there is any
one here to-day that would come under the first head.
It is pretty hard to find any one in this world that has
not some hope. Once in a while you will come across a
person that has no hope in this life or the life to come.
It is from that class that our suicides come. When
men or women get to that point that they have no
hope in this life, they become utterly discouraged, cast
down, no hope in the life to come, believe when they die
that is the last of them, atheists in their views, believe
there is no hereafter, they put an end to their existence.

The point I want to call your attention to in the class
that has no earthly hope, is this, " A child is sick; a doc-
tor is called, and he looks at the child and says there is
no hope; but the moment the mother loses hope of the
child living in this world another hope comes up; she
hopes to see the child again in another world. Hope
comes and cheers that mother in trouble.

When Mr. Curtin was governor of Pennsylvania, a
young man in that state was convicted of murder and
was sentenced to be hung. His friends tried in every
way they could to get him released. The young man
was holding on to a hope that he would be released; they
could not make him believe that he had to die. At last

BLESSED HOPE. 38 I

the governor sent for George H. Stuart, and said to
him, "I wish you would go down to that jail and tell that
young man there is no hope; tell him that there is not
one ray of hope; that on the day appointed he must die;
that I am not going to pardon him." Mr. Stuart said
when he went into the jailthe young man's countenance
lit up, and he says, "Ah, I am sure you brought me good
news. What does it say?" Mr. Stuart said he would
never be the bearer of such a message again. He said
that he lay down beside him on the iron bed, and said,
" My friend, I am sorry to tell you there is not any hope.
The governor says you must die at the appointed time.
He will not pardon you. He sent me down here to take
away this false hope you have got, and to tell you you
have to die. " He said the young man fainted away, and
it was some time before they could bring him to. The
poor man's heart was broken. He had been holding on
to a false hope. In that case, that young man was not
without hope, because he could repent, for God does for-
give murderers, and become a child of God; become a
saved man. Hope comes right in there. Even these
men that think that they have no hope, there is hope for
them if they will only turn to the God of hope, and to
the God of the Bible.

That is only one class. Job speaks about days passing
without hope; but then he does not mean that there was
not any hope beyond this life, because Job says in an-
other place, "I know my Redeemer liveth, and that I
shall see Him." He was like Paul. He knew in whom
he believed. He had a hope in the darkness and fog;
when those waves of persecution came dashing up against
him, and in the midst of the storm and conflict you

382 Moody's sermons.

could hear Job cry out, " I know my Redeemer liveth."
He had a hope. So I say it is hard to find any one that
comes under the first head. Most people have some sort
of hope.

Now I come to the second head, people that have a
false hope. I contend that a man or woman that is
resting in false hope is really worse off than one who has
no hope in this world; because if a man wakes up to the
fact that he has no hope, there is a chance of rousing
him to seek a hope that is worth having. The moment
you begin to talk with these men that have a false hope,
they run right off into their fortress and say, " I am all
right; I have got a hope." You can hardly find a man
or woman in all this city to-day that has not a hope.
But how many are resting in a false hope, a miserable,
treacherous hope that is good for nothing? You can't
find a drunkard that has not a hope. He hangs on to
the rumbottle with one hand and hope with the other;
but his hope is a miserable lie; it is a refuge of lies that
he has hid behind. You can't find a harlot that walks
the streets of this city but that has some hope. You
can hardly find a thief but that has some hope.

Now, what we want to do is to examine ourselves, and
see whether we have a hope that will stand the test of
the judgment. We want to know whether we have a
true hope or a false hope. If it is a false hope, the quick-
er we find it out the better. We don't want to be rest-
ing in a false hope. That has caused nearly all the mis-
chief we have had in this country during the past few
years. All these defaulters have come from that class.
They were trusting in a false hope. They said, " I will
take a little from the bank or from my employer, I will

BLESSED HOPE. 383

just overdraw my account a few thousand dollars, but I
will replace it." But they went on drawing out, and
drawing out, and this false hope kept saying, ' ' I can make
it all right in a few days." They were led on and on
by false hope until at last they got beyond hope, and
could not pay it back. They were ruined. They were
not only ruined — it would be a good thing if they stopped
there, but look at their wives and their children and their
relatives, their parents and their loved ones that they
have ruined. They didn't intend to become ruined men.
They didn't intend to bring a blight upon their families
and upon their prospects here. A false hope led them
on step by step.

Now, my friends, let us be honest with ourselves to-
day, and ask ourselves honestly before God and man,
1 ' What is my hope?" Well, there is a lady up there in
the gallery says, "I joined the Methodist church ten
years ago." Very well, suppose you did, what is your
hope to-day? " Well, my hope is all right; I joined the
church." But that is not going to stand the light of
eternity. It don't say that you have got to join some
church. A man or woman may belong to a church and
have not the spirit of Jesus Christ.

Yes, and another one says over there, " I have a bet-
ter hope than that; I belong to the Congregational
church, and go out to all the meetings." A person may
go to all the meetings and not have a true hope. Do
you know that? If you allow the meetings to take the
place of Jesus Christ, and let the church come in the de-
nomination that you belong to, and take the place of
Jesus Christ, you are resting on a rotten foundation, and
you are building your house on a sandy foundation, and

384 Moody's sermons.

when the storms come, the house will fall. There is
nothing but Jesus Christ that will do. But these false
hopes will be swept away by-and-by. God's hail will
sweep away the refuges of lies. It says in the eleventh
chapter of Proverbs and seventh verse, "The hope of
the unrighteous man perisheth." Now, if I belong to
the church and am unrighteous, I may have a hope, but
that is going to perish, and it may be I will not find it
out until it is too late to get a good hope. It is a good
deal better to find it out here to-day, when I have a
chance to repent of my sin, and turn to God and get a
true hope, than it is to go on with my eyes closed in the
delusion that I am coming out all right.

There is another passage here, in Job, twenty-seventh
chapter and eighth verse, " For what is the hope of the
hypocrite, though he hath gained, when God taketh away
his soul?" What is his hope good for? The hope of the
hypocrite is not good for anything. A man may gain by
his hypocrisy; a man may put on the garb of religion,
and profess to be what he is not, and may gain by it;
there is no doubt of that; some do that, and they gain a
little; but what shall it profit a man if he does gain by
his hypocrisy, and God taketh away his soul? His hope
is gone. It was a treacherous hope. It was good for
nothing.

11 But then," you may say, " I am not an unrighteous
man; I don't come under that head at all, and I am no
hypocrite." Well, I am afraid a good many of us that
think we are not hypocrites are more or less hypocrites
after all. The trouble is, men are trying to pass them-
selves off for more than they are worth. They are trying
to make people believe they are better than they really

BLESSED HOPE. 385

are. God wants honesty. God wants downright up-
rightness, if you will allow me the expression. He wants
us to be truthful and upright in all our transactions. If
we are not, our profession don't help us. You may be-
long to this church or to that church. You may say
your prayers, and you may go through the form of re-
ligion, but it will not help you. What is the hope of the
hypocrite when God shall take away his soul? Suppose
he has gained by his hypocrisy, there is not a thing, I
believe, that God detests more than He does hypocrisy.
He detests that sin more than He does all others. Jesus
tore away the false hope of some of His disciples and
told them, ' ' Except your righteousness exceed the right-
eousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in nowise
enter into the kingdom of God." Ah, there will be many
a man and many a woman, I am afraid, by-and-by, who
will wake up and find their hope has been a false one,
after all.

Then there is another hope that is false. Men say,
11 I think God is very merciful, and that it will come out
all right in the end," God has declared with an oath
that He will not clear the guilty. What folly it is for a
man to stand up and say, "I know I swear now and
then; but then God don't mean anything when He says
I shan't swear. God is only winking at sin. It will
come out all right. The blasphemer, the drunkard, the
libertine, and the man who is vile and polluted in heart
will be just the same at the end of the route. That is
my hope." Well, it is a false hope. If there is a drunk-
ard here to-day, let me tell you that your hope is per-
fectly worthless, because God says that no drunkard
shall inherit the kingdom of heaven. That we find not

386 Moody's sermons.

only in the Old Testament, but in the New. And if there
is a man here that sells liquor, that is party to the hellish
act of putting the bottle in his neighbor's hand, there is
not any hope for him. I don't care how much money
you give to help build your churches. I don't care if you
have the best pew in one of your large churches, and
walk down the broad aisle every Sunda}/ with your wife
and children, and take your seat there. " Woe be to
the man that putteth the bottle to his neighbor's lips."
God has pronounced a curse against that man. Things
look altogether different when we stand before the judge
of all the earth.

Yes, but then there is another man. He says, " I can
go on as I am, and by-and-by when I am sick, I can re-
pent on my death-bed." I think that is a false hope.
And let me say, I think there is any quantity of lying in
the sick-room, a good many false hopes held out to the
sick. Here is a person dying, and the doctor comes in,
and he knows very well that the disease is fatal, and
knows that person can't live ten days, and he says, ''I
think you will be well and out in a few days, in the
course of thirty days." He knows very well it is death.
They say to these consumptives when they see that aw-
ful look in the face; when they see his form is wasting,
they say, "Well, I think you will be out again in the
spring; when the flowers begin to blossom, and nature
begins to unfold itself, you will be out again," when they
know it is downright lying. O, the false hopes that are
held out to sick and the dying! Then at the funeral
people will stand up and pronounce a eulogy over a man
that died in his sins when there is not a chance for his

BLESSED HOPE. 387

soul. God says, ''The soul that sinneth it shall die.
He has not sought eternal life. He has spurned the
gift of God and trampled the Bible under his feet. Look
at the lying at funerals; false hopes that are held out.
What God wants is to have us real, as He is real, and if
our hope is not a hope that will stand the test of eter-
nity, then the quicker we find it out the better.

Then there is another false hope, which I think is
worse, perhaps, than any other, and that is that a man
can repent beyond the grave. There is a class of people
who say, " I can go on in my sins and live as I am living,
and I can repent beyond the grave." Now, if there is
a chance for a man to repent beyond the grave, I can't
find it between the lids of the Bible. I believe that if a
man dies in his sin he is banished from God, and I be-
lieve that when Jesus Christ said, "If ye die in your
sins, where I am ye cannot come," he meant what he
said.

So, if our hope is false, let us find it out to-day. Let
us be hqnest with ourselves, and ask God to show it to
us. If our hope is not on the solid rock, if we are build-
ing our house on the sand, let us find it out. You may
say, " My hope is as good as yours. My house is as
good-looking house as yours." That may be. It might
be a better looking house than mine. But the import-
ant thing is the foundation. What we want is to be sure
that we have a good foundation. A man may build up
a very good character, but he may not have it on a good
foundation. If he is building a house on the sand, when
storm and trials come, down will come all his hopes. A
false hope is worse than no hope. If you have a false
hope to-day, make up your mind that you will not rest
until you reach a hope that is worth having.

388 Moody's sermons.

Now, here is a test that I think we can put to our-
selves. If we have got the spirit of Jesus Christ, our
life will be like His; that is, we will be humble, loving.
We will not be jealous, will not be ambitious, self-seek-
ing, covetous, revengeful, but we will be meek, tender-
hearted, affectionate, loving, kind and Christ-like, and
we will be all the time growing in those graces. Now,
we can tell whether we have that spirit or not. " If any
one have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of His."
Now, that is a sign that we have a good hope, and if we
haven't got the spirit of Christ, our hope is worthless.

Now, I was speaking about that house on the founda-
tion. If you will turn to Isaiah, twenty-eighth chapter
and sixteenth verse, you will find that the foundation is
already laid. "Therefore; thus saith the Lord God.
Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried
stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation; he
that believeth shall not make haste." There it is tried;
it is a precious corner stone; it is a sure foundation. It
was tried when Christ was here. He is the chief corner
stone. He was tried. The Scribes tried Him. The
Sadducees tried Him. He was tried by the law. He
kept the law. He was tried by, and He overcame death.
He was tried by Satan. Satan came and presented
temptation after temptation, and He said, "Get thee
hence." He overcame Satan. He was tried by the
grave, and He conquered the grave. This stone has been
tested and tried. Now, if we build on that, we have a
sure foundation. There is none other name under heaven
given among men whereby we must be saved. ' ' There
is no other foundation that man can lay than that is laid,"
and all that build on that foundation shall be saved. Let

BLESSED HOPE. 389

the storms come then and try that foundation. It has
been tried. Your foundation, if you build on any other,
has never been tested. It has not been tried. Your
hope has not been tried. Our hope has, because our
hope is in Jesus Christ, and it was put to the test, and
we have got a hope that is sure and firm, if we are in
Christ. Now, a false hope just flatters people. It is a
great flatterer. It makes people think they are all right
when they are all wrong. Some one has said that false
hopes are like spider webs. The maid comes in with a
broom and sweeps them all down. When a storm comes,
the foundation of our false hopes is all gone. Suppose
death should come and look you in the face this after-
noon, and say to you, ' ' This is your last day, " and should
begin to lay his cold, icy hand upon you, and you should
begin to look around to see if you had got a foundation
and a good hope. Would you be ready to meet God?
That is the question. Now, what may happen any day
let us be ready for every day. You know very well there
is not one of us but that may be summoned this very day
into the presence of God. Have you got a hope that will
stand the dying hour? Have you got a hope that will
stand the test? If you have not, you can give up your
false hope to-day and get a good one, a hope that is
worth having, that has been tried and tested.

There were two millers that used to take care of a mill,
and every night at midnight the miller used to get into
his boat from his house, and go down the stream to the
mill; used to get out about two or three hundred yards
above the dam, and go to the mill. His brother miller
would take the boat and row back to the house. One
night this miller went down as usual at midnight and fell

390 MOODY S SERMONS.

asleep, and when he woke up found he was almost going
over the dam, the water going over the dam having waked
him. He realized in a moment his condition, that if he
went over that dam it was sure death, and he seized the
oars and tried to row back, but the current was too
strong, and he could not pull against it, but he managed
in the darkness to get his boat near the shore, and he
caught hold of a little twig. He went to pull himself
out of the boat, and the twig began to give way at the
roots. He looked all around, and could find nothing else
to get hold of; but he could just hold on to the twig and
keep his boat from going over the dam- If he pulled a
little harder and tried to pull himself up, the little twig
would give way; and he just cried then for help. His
hope was not a good one. He would perish if he let go,
and perish if he held on. He just cried at the top of his
voice for help, and help came. They came and threw a
rope over the cleft of the rock, and he let go of the twig
and laid hold of the rope, and was saved.

I have come here to throw a rope over to you, and to
give you a good hope. Now, we have a hope here that
is worth having. Let that false hope of yours go; you
will perish if you will hold on to it. Let it go and lay
hold of a hope that is set before you.

Now, you know that hope in Scripture never is used
to express a doubt. When people say they hope they
are Christians, it is not really proper. You cannot find
any Christians in the Bible who say they hope they are
Christians. It is something that has already taken place.
We don't hope we are Christians. If a man asks me if
I am a married man, I would not say I hope I am. That
would cast a reflection on my marriage vows. If a man

BLESSED HOPE. 39 1

asks me if I am an American, I would not say I hope I
am. I was born in this country. I am an American. I
am not anything else. Now, if I have been born of God,
born of the spirit, and I contend it is our privilege to
know, I don't say, ''I hope I am a Christian." I know
in Whom I have believed. I will tell you what hope is
used for in Scripture. It used to express our hope of the
resurrection, or the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ,
something to take place. It is a sure hope. About every
time that hope is used in Scripture, it is used either to
express our hope of the resurrection, or the coming back
of our Lord and Master. That is the blessed hope in
Titus. We are waiting for our Lord and Master from
heaven. We have not a doubt. It is a sure hope. And
yet a great many people seem to think that hope here in
the Bible is used to express a doubt. " We hope 'that
we are Christians." We ought to know that we are His.
We ought to know that we have passed from death unto
life. We ought to know in Whom we have believed, that
we are looking forward to the time when these vile bodies
shall be raised incorruptible; when that which has been
sown in weakness shall be raised with power. We are
living in the glorious hope that when our dead shall
come back again, the loved ones that are laid away in
the cemeteries shall come when the Lord of heaven shall
descend with a shout. " When the trump of God is
heard, the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we which
are alive and remain shall be caught up, together with
them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air."

So we stand with our loins girded and our lights burn-
ing, waiting for the coming of the Master.

Now, it says here in Proverbs, ' l The hope of the right-

392 MOODY S SERMONS.

eous shall be gladness." ''Happy is he that hath the
God of Jacob for his hope, whose hope is in the Lord."
It is not in some resolution that he has made; it is not in
some act of his; it is not that he has joined some church;
it is not that he reads his Bible, or that he says his
prayers. His expectation is from God; his hope is in
God. Never was a man disappointed who put his hope
in God. God will fulfill His word. There is no such
thing as a man being disappointed that puts his hope in
God. But the trouble is, you know, we are putting our
hopes in one another, and we are being disappointed.
We are putting our hopes in ourselves, and our treach-
erous hearts are disappointing us, and then we are cast
down. But what we want is to put our hope in Him,
not ourselves. A well-grounded hope is good for all
time. It is good in poverty. It is good in sickness. It
is good in the dying hour; and when we lay a body down
in the grave, we have a hope in its coming back again.
We lay down with sure hope, a glorious hope. O, how
hope cheers us! You know it was Hopeful (in Bunyan's
Pilgrim's Progress) that came along and cheered Chris-
tian. That is what hope is for. We are looking for-
ward to a blessed hope.

Now, there is a passage in the sixth chapter of He-
brews that I want to call your attention to, "That by
two immutable things, in which it was impossible for
God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who had
fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us;
which hope we have as an anchor to the soul, both sure
and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the
veil; whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus,
made an high priest forever after the order of Melchis-

BLESSED HOPE. 393

edec." What the anchor is to the ship, hope is to the
soul; as long as the anchor holds, the ship is perfectly
safe.

Now, if I were to die this afternoon, and were to give
a reason for the hope that is within me, I will tell you
where I would find it; not in my feelings, not in my reso-
lutions, not that I joined the church twenty odd years
ago. I believe it is all right to unite with the church,
and work for it. We ought to love the church; it is the
dearest institution on earth. If I was going to die this
afternoon, my faith would be right here, ' ' Verily, verily,
I say unto you, he that heareth my word, and believeth
on Him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not
come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto
life." Now, if I did not get eternal life by believing on
the Lord Jesus Christ when I came to Him, what did I
get? If eternal life is not the gift of God, what is it?
Then, if we have eternal life, we have something that
cannot perish. It is a life that carries me beyond the
grave; that reaches away over on to resurrection ground;
that carries me on and on forever. The wages of sin is
death, but the gift of God is eternal life. Eternal life is
a gift, and I just took it. That is my hope. I don't
want any other hope. If I had to die to-day, I could
just pillow my dying head upon the truth of that verse,
and rest it there.

A man said to me the other day, " How do you feel?"
I said, " It has been so long since I have thought of my-
self, I don't know; I would have to stop to think it
over."

I thank God my salvation don't rest upon my feelings.
I thank God my hope is not centered in my feelings. If

394 MOODY S SERMONS.

it was, it would be a very treacherous thing. I would be
very hopeful one day and cast down the next day. I
would not give much for a hope that is anchored in my
feelings. I would not give much for a hope that is based
upon my treacherous heart. But I tell you that a hope
that is based upon Jesus Christ's word is a hope worth
having. Now, he said it; let us believe it; let us lay
hold of it by faith. ' ' Verily, verily, " which means
"truly, truly," "he that heareth my word" — I have
heard it. Satan can't make me believe that I have not.
I have read it; I have handled it — " He that heareth my
word and believeth on Him that sent Me hath everlasting
life." It don't say that you shall have it when you come
to die, but hath it right here this afternoon, before you
go out of this church. That is a hope worth having, isn't
it? " Hath everlasting life, and shall not come into con-
demnation," which means ' 'into judgment, " but ' 'is passed
from death unto life." There is my hope. I have stood
there for twenty odd years. I -have been assailed by
doubts. I have been assailed by unbelief. I have been
attacked by the enemy of all righteousness; but I tell
you for twenty odd years I have been able to stand fair
and square right on that rock. God said it. I believe
it; God said it. I lay hold of it, and I just rest right
there. What we want is to let our hope go down like
an anchor into the word of God, and that gives us some-
thing to rest upon.

A great many people are waiting for some feeling. I
will venture to say that more than half of this audience
have come here to-day, and taken their seats in the hope
that something will be said that shall impress them. You
say, ' ' I hope that man will say something that will im-

BLESSED HOPE. 395

press me." You are waiting for some impression, some-
thing to strike you. There is a man up in my native
town, now fifty-eight years old, with whom I have talked
I don't know how many times, and every time I talk to
him he says, " Well, it hasn't struck me yet." " What
do you mean?" " Well," he says, " it hasn't struck me
yet." "Well," I said, "that is a queer expression.
What do you mean?" He would come out to meetings,
and wait through the meeting for something to strike
him. "What do you mean?" "Well, I say' it hasn't
struck me yet." You laugh at it, but that is yourself.
You need not laugh at yourself. You will find the church
is full of people who are waiting for something to strike
them. What we want is to take God's word, and let the
feelings take care of themselves. God said it. I will
believe it, and I will rest my soul upon the word of God,
not upon my feelings. Just take another word, " He
came unto His own, and His own received Him not; but
to as many as received Him, to them gave He power to
become the sons of God, even to them that believe on
His name." To as many as received Him. It is not
dogma; it is not creed; it is not doctrine; it is not feeling;
it is not an impression; but it is a person. "As many
as received Him, to them gave He power to become the
sons of God." We get power to serve God, power to
live for God, power to work for God by receiving Christ,
and there is no power until we do receive Him. What
we want is to receive God's gift to the world. When He
gave up Christ, He gave all He had. He literally
emptied heaven. And He wants you to take Christ as
you would take any other gift and receive it. Lay hold
of that gift, and it will give you hope, and if you should,

396 Moody's sermons.

inside of twenty-four hours you can say, "The anchor
holds; I have a hope." If God said if I would receive
His Son, He would give me power to receive Him. I
trust Him, and that is all He asks us to do. Let not
any one here to-day say he can't believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. You have the power if you will. The will
is the key to the human heart. " Ye will not come unto
Me that ye might have life." Ye will not come unto Me
and get this good hope. You can have it. Take it.
God offers it to you. You can lay hold of this hope to-
day. You can become His if you will.

The Destruction of Sodom. Genesis, xix.

THE WORLDLY PROFESSOR.

We have for our subject to-day, the worldly professor.
There is a class of people now-a-days that seem to say
with a good deal of pleasure that they are Christians,
but they are not the spiritual kind. They are paying
members rather than praying members. They flatter
themselves the church could not get on very well without
them, and they seem to think it is really better to be-
long to that class.

Now, I want to call your attention to a man of that
class to-day. It is Lot, and, as I said yesterday, that
Peter was, a near kin of us all, I think we will find Lot a
pretty close relative, if we will study his character. I
think we will find that we come very near him. I think
you will find to-day a good many more Lots in the
church than you will find Abrahams. There are a good
many more Jacobs than Josephs; men that are walking
by sight rather than by faith.

The first glimpse we get of this character is in the
eleventh chapter of Genesis, thirty-first and thirty-second-
verses, M And Terah took Abram, his son, and Lot, the
son of Haran, his son's son, and Saria, his daughter-in
law, his son Abram's wife; and they went forth with
them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of

399

400 MOODY S SERMONS.

Canaan; and they came into Haran and dwelt there.
And the days of Terah were two hundred and five years.
And Terah died in Haran."

Now, we find in the twelfth chapter, and the first and
second verses, ''Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get
thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from
thy father's house, unto a land that I will show thee.
And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless
thee and make thy name great, and thou shalt be a
blessing."

Now, God had called him out of the land of the idol-
atars, he had called him away from his kindred, and he
came, it says, to Haran. If you will look at the map of
that country you will find that he came half way; and he
staid there five years, until his father died. It was af-
fliction that brought him out of Haran.

Now, I think you will find that a good many of us
have got to Haran, and there we have stopped. God has
called us to the promised land, and the Lord wants us to
go clear over into Canaan, but we think it is better to
live on the border between the two; and the border
Christians at the present time are the ones that are doing
so much harm, not only to the cause of Christ, but to
themselves and their own families.

Now, what we want is to get out of Haran and get
into the promised land where God wants us to go. We
find that after Terah, the father of Abraham, died, they
started and went down into the promised land, and the
first thi ng that met them there was a famine. God
will not have a man that he cannot try. This was a great
trial. Not only that, but they found this land occupied.
God had promised to give it to Abraham, and yet it was

THE WORDLY PROFESSOR. 4OI

occupied. He starts and goes down into Egypt. I have
not followed that out, but I think it would be a very in-
teresting study to look and see if God ever sent any one
down into Egypt, unless it was his Son when He sent
Him down there, and He fled away from the men that
wanted to slay Him, and that the Scriptures might be
fulfilled which says that He should call Him out of
Egypt.

Lot went down into Egypt, and there he got rich, and
the world calls him very successful. And there was the
beginning of the trouble between Lot and Abraham.
They came up out of the country rich. While Abraham
was down there, he fell into sin, and it was there he de-
nied his wife. We find that his son Isaac did the same
thing, fell upon the same stumbling stone that Abraham
fell upon. It shows that our children are following in
our footsteps. And when they came up out of Egypt we
see a strife among the herdsmen. Riches very often
bring strife and trouble. If Abraham had been like some
men now-a-days; there would have been a good chance
for a lawsuit. They would have gone into a lawsuit be-
fore those heathen and caused a good deal of scandal.
But Abraham was a man of faith. He said to his nephew,
" We can't afford to quarrel here among these heathen;
let there be no strife between us. You go to the right,
and I will go to the left, or you to the left, and Lwill go
to the right. You take your pick." Then was the be-
ginning of Lot's trouble. He made a mistake. If Lot
had allowed God to choose for him, he never would have
gone down to Sodom that is clear. The Lord of heaven
never took Lot by the hand and led him into the well-
watered plains of Sodom.

402 MOODY S SERMONS.

I don't believe God ever led one of his children yet
down into Sodom. I think the sweetest lesson I have
learned since I have been in Christ's school — I have been
a good while learning it; I wish I had learned that lesson
the first year I came into His school — it is to let the
Lord choose for me when it comes to temporal things.
We are apt to think we can choose better than the Lord
can. My little childrfc are very apt to think they can
choose a good deal better for themselves than I can for
them. But they don't know what is for their good half
as well as I do; and I don't know what is good for my-
self, especially in regard to temporal things, as well as my
Father does. He can choose better for us than we can
choose for ourselves.

Now, in the sight of the world, Lot made a very fine
choice. I will venture to say the men in his day said he
was a shrewd, keen, sharp, long-headed man; and if he
should live twenty-five years, he would be worth more
than his uncle Abraham. He had got all those well-wa-
tered plains of Sodom. He was a very shrewd business
man. He was a man to be commended in the sight of
the world. The world would commend such a spirit as
that. But Abraham let his nephew take his choice, and
they separated, and that was really the greatest mistake
that Lot ever made. There was the beginning of his
troubles. When we begin to choose for ourselves, we will
always be making mistakes of that kind; and the mistakes
of our life, we can sing every day, are many, if we at-
tempt to choose for ourselves.

I remember I wanted to teach my little girl this lesson
some time ago, when she was a little thing. She had a
good many dolls around the house — broken legs, and

THE WORLDLY PROFESSOR. 403

broken arms, and eyes, all lying around there; and she
had been teasing me a good while to get a big doll — a
great big one. So one day, I thought I would get her a
big doll, and went to a toy shop. There was a basket-
ful of little china dolls there, about as big as your finger.
She got one and said, " Papa, isn't this the prettiest lit-
tle doll you ever did see? Isn't that cunning? Now, papa,
won't you buy me that doll?" 'Well, now," I said,
1 'Emma, if you want me to, I will, but I was going to
pick you out a doll this time. Hadn't I better choose for
you?" "No, papa; I want that doll." She insisted upon
it, and I paid a nickel, and we went off home. A day or
two after, I said, "Emma, do you know what I was
going to do when I took you into the toy shop the other
day?" "No." "Well, I was going to buy you one of
those great big dolls you wanted so long." ' ' Why didn't
you do it?" " Because you wouldn't let me." "Why
wouldn't I let you?" "Why, because you wanted to
choose for yourself. You said you would rather have
that doll," She bit her lips. She saw she had made a
mistake; and from that day to this I never have been
able to get that girl to pick out anything. She is fifteen
years old now. She says, " You pick, you choose."
When I was going off to Europe, I said, " Now, what
shall I get for you while I am in Europe?" "Just what
you please." I could not get her to pick out anything.
She says, " You pick for me."

Now, if we let the Lord choose for us, He will choose
better for us than we can for ourselves. Lot wanted to
choose for himself. I will venture to say when he left
Abraham, if you had talked to him about going to Sodom,
he would have said, " O, no; go into Sodom! Do you

4O4 MOODY S SERMONS.

think I would take my wife into Sodom? Do you think
I would take my children down into Sodom — into that
great city with all its temptations? Not I?" He pitched
his tent towards Sodom. He looked towards the city,
and it was not long before his business took him in there.
He went down there, perhaps, to sell his cattle, and found
there was a good market. Some of the leading men
wanted him to come down there. He could make a good
deal of money, could make money faster. When a man
pitches his tent toward Sodom, and gets to looking in, it
won't be long before he gets in there, tent and all. It
was not long before Lot got down into Sodom. His busi-
ness took him there. If you had talked to him he would
have said, " Business must be attended to. A man must
attend to business, you know." "But then it will be
ruin to your family." " O, well, I am going to make
money and get out of it. When I get enough to retire
I will get out of it, move back and live on the plains
with Abraham. But I must attend to business first."
Many a man puts his business before his family. Busi-
ness must be attended to to get rich, let the consequences
be what they will; let ruin and desolation come upon the
family, I must accumulate wealth while I have the op-
portunity. Undoubtedly Lot reasoned in that way, as a
great many people reason now.

The next thing we hear of now is that Sodom has a
war; and if you go into Sodom, you have to take a Sodom
judgment. When the judgment does come, you have to
take a part of it. If you take Sodom's money, you must
take Sodom's judgment. War came, and the king of
Sodom was defeated in battle, and Lot was taken a pris-
oner, his wife and his children. And when the people

THE WORLDLY PROFESSOR. 405

on the plains told Abraham of it, and as soon as Abraham
heard of it, he called his servants, three hundred and
eighteen of them, and went in hot haste after the enemy,
overtook them, and got Lot and his family and brought
them all back.

Now, he ought to have kept out of Sodom, he ought to
have staid on the plains with the tent and altar, because
all the time Lot was there in Sodom we never hear of
his having an altar there. We never hear of his calling
on the God of Abraham down there. He was down there
trying to make money, and not to worship. That is not
what he went to Sodom for. It was to get some of
Sodom's money. That was what he was after; and in-
stead of staying out, he goes back again. That ought to
have been warning enough. Bat if you had reasoned with
him, undoubtedly he would have told you he must go
back and make up what he had lost. He had lost a good
deal. He had got a start; he was known; he held some
real estate down there, and he must go down there; he
Wanted to look after it. There had been a fire, and the
fire had burned up a number of his buildings, and he
must go down and rebuild; and he takes his family and
goes back into Sodom. In the sight of the world, Lot
was one of the most successful men in all Sodom. If
you had gone into Sodom a little while before destruction
came upon it, and began to inquire about Sodom and its
leading men, they would have told you, Lot, the nephew
of Abraham, was one of the most successful men in all
Sodom. He held office. We find him sitting at the
gate; that is a sign that he was an officer; perhaps they
made him a judge; a good, high-sounding name, Judge
Lot. It is a good title; the world honored him; Sodom

406 Moody's sermons.

honored him. They liked him there very well. Then he
would have reasoned in this way: " Don't you see 1
have got an influence by coming down here." He was a
man of great influence in the sight of the world — immense
influence. They would have told you he was one of the
most influential men in all Sodom. He owned, perhaps,
the best corner lots, and he may have had his name on
them. You might have seen his name on a good many
of those corner lots, and on the best buildings in town,
[f they had had a congress in those days, he would have
been a very popular man to send to congress. It would
have been "The Honorable Mr. Lot of Sodom." They
would have made him mayor, perhaps. He was a man
the world delighted to honor. The world delights to
honor that kind of a man; a man of great influence.

But I want to call your attention to one thing. He
was there twenty years and never got a convert. That
is the man of influence! Look around and see where the
worldly Christians are. How many souls are they win-
ning to Jesus Christ? Are they the men that are building
up Christ's kingdom? I tell you those men are doing
more to tear it down than any other class of men. Lot
was so identified with Sodom, and so much like
the men of Sodnm he came to testify for the
God of Abraham do you think they would take
his testimony? Not a word of it. Mrs. Lot, his
wife, moved in the very highest circle, probably. If she
rode out, she had the very best turnout. If they had
theaters in those days, you would have found her at the
theater. Her children, of course, were in the world, and
they had to be like the world. Of course they danced.
They were what you call dancing Christians, theater-go-
ing Christians. If a nice opera comes along, the Chicago

THE WORLDLY PROFESSOR. 407

church choir or something of that kind, and it comes
Friday night, prayer-meeting night, they are all there.
They are not at the prayer-meeting.

Ah, you smile, but the church is full of them to-day.
We have our Lots. Twenty long years he stayed down
there in Sodom; and when the messenger of God visited
him, what did they find? I would be ashamed to read it
to you. It would bring a tinge of red upon your cheeks.
Many of you would blush and hang your heads. A child
of God down there in Sodom! A child of God in such a
dark place! Those two messengers didn't have any writ-
ten word. God used to send messengers down. It had
been a long time since Lot had seen any messengers
from heaven. When he was back to the plains with
Abraham, with the tent and the altar, they visited the
tent, and he was quite familiar with them. He had seen
them often talking to his uncle, but he had been down
there in the mists and fogs of Sodom, and he had not
seen those angels. But late one afternoon, two of them
made their appearance at the gate. He was there sit-
ting in his place of office, and he knew them. He invited
them to his house. Most of you know what took place.
If they had not performed a miracle there, the Sodomites
would have slain those two men of God. They rose up
against them. Lot tried to quiet them, and they mocked
him. "This stranger coming here to dictate to us !"
Where is his testimony? They didn't receive his testi-
mony. These men tell us they want to get influence
over the world and are going to reach the world in that
way. Do they reach it in that way? Do worldly
Christians reach the world? The world reaches them
and pulls them down. They don't pull the world
up. I never knew one that did it. It is the sepa-

408 Moody's sermons.

rated man — it is Abraham with the tent and the altaf,
that is out of the mist and fog of Sodom, that is going
to do Sodom good; not the men down in Sodom, living
like Sodom. Separation is what we want to-day. We
want the men of God to come out from the world. There
is a difference between the men of God and the men of
this world. They that serve the god of this world are
the servants of sin and Satan. They that serve the Lord
Jesus Christ do not belong to this world. The)7 are citi-
zens of another world. And these two messengers found
such a horrible state of things, they said to Lot, " Have
you any other children in Sodom, besides these two
daughters here in this house? " And they found that two
of his daughters had been given away to the Sodomites.
Think of it. He had got rich; got money; he had got
Sodom's money. But two of his daughters had been
given to the Sodomites — those men living in such awful
sin and such awful wickedness. What do we see to-day?
Fathers and mothers giving their daughters to ungodly
men, drinking men, gambling men, licentious men, men
whose hearts are as black as hell; but they have a little
money, and holds a little position, drive fast horses.
Professed Christians! And that is the worst of it. Lot
professed to be the servant of the most high God, living
there in Sodom.

The messengers said, " Go get them out; we are going
to destroy this place. The wickedness of this place has
come up to high heaven, and God is going to blast it.
The day of judgment is coming. Make haste, Lot; get
your children out of here." Look at that old man at
midnight, gray-haired, in the evening of his life, moving
along through the streets of Sodom with his head down.

THE WORLDLY PROFESSOR. 409

What a night for Lot! Here is your man of influence.
He goes to the house where those sons-in-law are. They
are, perhaps, asleep. He raps. Some one opens the
window, puts his head out and he says, " Who is there?"
" It is your father-in-law, Lot." "What are you here
for at this time of the night?" " I have got a couple of
messengers from heaven in my house, and they have
brought news from heaven that God is going to destroy
this city, and they want to have me get you out," and
they mock at him. His own sons in-law mock him.
There is your worldly man. There is the man that has
gone into the world to get influence over it, and his own
children, there they are, and they mock the old. He
plead and undoubtedly wept over them, but it was all in
vain. They mocked at his tears; they mocked at his en-
treaties. "Why, Sodom to be destroyed? Away with
such a delusion! Sodom was never more prosperous than
it is to-day." They were eating and drinking, buying
and selling, and building, until the fire came, as it was
in the days of Noah "Sodom destroyed! We were
never more prosperous than we are now. Away with such
a delusion! God going to judge Sodom! We don't be-
lieve it." His own children didn't believe it. We can
see him going back to his house with a broken heart,
head down, weeping. Early the next morning, the angel
had to take him by the hand and hasten him out of the
city. Poor Lot! He lingered. Do you know why he
lingered? Ah! those loved ones were there. If there is
any person on earth we ought to pity it is the father or
mother that has led his children into the world and then
can't get them out. You lead them in, and then when
you try to lead them out, they laugh at you and mock

4io Moody's sermons.

you. O, to live so that our children will not take our
testimony! I tell you if I know my own heart, I would
rather he torn limb from limb on this platform, I would
rather die this moment, than to live so that my children
do not, would not have confidence in my testimony when
I spoke of Jesus Christ and the religion of the Bible. I
tell you if you live a worldly life as Lot did down in
Sodom, that is going to be the result. The reaping time
is coming, and we will have to reap the bitter fruit. Look
at poor Lot as he takes his wife and his two daughters,
and hastens out of the city. And his wife, no wonder
she looked back. Those loved ones, those children were
there.

Now, just take an inventory of what Lot lost. He lost
his testimony, that is certain. There was not a Sodomite
that would take it, and his own family would not. He
lost his wife and all his children but two. He lost all his
property. He lost his peace of mind. He lost the so-
ciety of Abraham. He fell still lower out on the moun-
tain side. The curtain drops, )^ou might say, upon him,
and he became the father of the backsliders. He became
the father of a nation, that were afterwards enemies of
God. The bitter fruit of backsliding! That is the end of
the worldly professor. Yet they lift up their heads in
this city and tell you they are not spiritually minded
people, and rather boast of it.

If you want to find out who is the successful man, you
don't want to take a glimpse of him right in the middle
of life, right in his prime, but take him from the cradle
to the grave, and see what an influence the man leaves
behind him. I will venture to say there are hundreds of
men that would give all they have got if they could bury

THE WORLDLY PROFESSOR. 411

their influence in the grave with them. Their influence
has been bad over their children, and in the community.

Now, if there is a poor Lot in this audience to-day, I
beg of you to get out of Sodom.

Make haste! Don't linger any longer upon the plains,
but start for Mount Calvary. Come back again and con-
fess your sins, and ask God to forgive you, and then go
to work and get your children out. Make haste! The
judgment is coming. Men may mock and scoff as long
as they have a mind to, but up yonder sits a God of judg-
ment. He is going to judge. He says He will do it,
and He will do it. It is only a question of time. We
might as well own it as shut our eyes to it, and deny the
fact that God is going to bring us to judgment; and if we
live in the world, and like the world, and bring our chil-
dren into the world, they are going to bring our gray
hairs to an untimely grave. Many a father has gone be-
fore us, and many of them to-day are on the way.

Let us ask God to open our eyes, that we may see our
true standing before God. It is a thousand times better
to be like Abraham, out on the plains with a tent and
altar, in daily communion with God, than it is to be in
Sodom with the honor of the whole city rolled at your
feet. The honor of this world is so empty, so fleeting!
It is not worth crossing the street for. Let us get the
world and Sodom under our feet to-day, and let us set
our faces like a flint toward the God of Abraham, and
let us be content to live on the plains with the tent and
altar, and serve our God until He calls us hence.

BIBLE READINGS.

PEACE.

Our subject to-day is peace. " How beautiful upon
the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good
tidings, that publisheth peace, that bringeth good tidings
of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion,
thy God reigneth."- — Is. lii. 7.

Now, the gospel of Jesus Christ is a gospel of peace.
He comes to bring peace to the earth; that is, to bring
peace to those who love Him.

Now I have often heard people say, "I don't under-
stand, then, what that means in the tenth chapter of Mat-
thew and thirty-fourth verse, 'Think not that I am come
to send peace on earth. I came not to send peace, but
a sword.'" But it is peace to them that have it, but a
sword to them that have the sword. They that live in
the flesh cannot live there with them that live in the spirit.

There is a war between nature and grace. There al-
ways was and always will be. The spirit of God and the
spirit of the natural man never agreed and never will.
There is as much difference between them as between
oil and water, or day and night. You cannot unite
them.

412

Leah.

PEACE. 415

One of the wildest young men in Chicago was con-
verted two years ago, and he has become a very devoted
Christian. He went to one of his old associates in sin,
and spoke to him about becoming a Christian. The man
turned on him with great rage and said, ''If you ever
speak to me on that subject again, I will knock your head
off." "That is strange, when I speak to you, and want
to do you good, you get angry and say you will knock
my head off." "Well, I ought not to have said it; I
don't know what made me say it." " I know what made
you say it; it is the devil in you and grace in me. They
never have agreed and they never will."

When you lay down the sword there is peace. He
wants you to get peace. He came for that very purpose.
If we will have Christ, then there is peace, but if not,
who is to blame? If there is war it is not because He
did not bring peace, but it is man's own corrupt nature,
his own black heart.

It is impossible to plant peace in this world without
war. That is clear. The world is at war with God.
It don't want Him. When we are willing to have peace
we can enter into it. Christ brought it. He says in the
sixteenth chapter of John, thirty-third verse, ' ' These
things have I spoken unto you that in Me ye have peace.
In the world ye shall have tribulation, but be of good
cheer. I have overcome the world."

A great mistake people make is that they are looking
for peace in the world. It is not to be found in the
world. We are going to have it by-and-by in that mil-
lennium reign. Now is the time of Christ's rejection. But
by-and-by He is coming back, " and righteousness shall
be the girdle of His loins, and faithfulness the girdle of

41 6 BIBLE READINGS.

His reins. The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and
the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf and
the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child
shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed;
their young ones shall lie down together, and the lion
shall eat straw like the ox." That day has not come.
Some people tell us we are living in the millennium. I
don't see any signs just now of a millennium with all these
standing armies. " They shall not hurt nor destroy in all
my holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the
knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea. And in
that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for
an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek and
his rest shall be glorious." That is the millennium. That
is not the present day. While men are lifting up their
voices against God they cannot have peace.

Now, there are some enemies to peace. Every sin is an
enemy to peace. God turns the ways of the wicked up-
side down. There is no peace for the wicked. In the
twenty-second chapter of Job you will find this passage:
" Acquaint now thyself with Him, and be at peace; there-
by good shall come unto thee." Get acquainted with
God, and you will get peace. He is the author of peace.
The way to get peace is to feed upon the blessed word
and find out what God is to us. Then we must have
righteousness. Righteousness comes before peace. With-
out right living, we cannot have peace. He wants every
one of his children to have it. " Thou wilt keep him in
perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee." But it is
not read in that way. It is read, ' ' Thou wilt keep him
in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on himself.

PEACE. 417

Now, in the fourteenth chapter of John, twenty-sev-
enth verse, " Peace I leave with you; My peace I give
unto you; not as the world giveth; give I unto you. Let
not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid."

A great many people are all the time trying to make
peace without entering into the conditions we enter in.

Toward the close of the war there was a proclamation
sent out that no more southern soldiers would be re-
ceived in the union army. There were some in the
southern army that hadn't seen the proclamation and a
rebel deserter came up to the union army, but the union
army would not have him. There he was between those
great armies. He would not go back for fear of being
shot as a deserter, so he took to the woods and hid him-
self, and lived on roots and herbs. At last, he had to
get food or die. One day, he met a man riding on horse-
back, and he said, if that man didn't help him, he would
kill him. The man said, ' ' What is the trouble?" Then
he told him the trouble, " Why, "says he, " don't you
know the war is over, and peace has been declared?"
" What! peace declared?" " Yes."

Ah, poor man! All he had to do was to enter into it.
Thank God, peace has been declared. Jesus Christ has
made peace. He has not left it for me. All I have to
do is to enter into it.

ASSURANCE.

Our subject for this meeting is assurance. We have
said considerable upon this subject, but I think a good
deal more is needed to be said in order that the children
of God may know that they are saved through Jesus
Christ. There are some people that will not know that
they are saved because they are not. I think there are
some who want the assurance that they are saved that
have not been born of the spirit. A person may unite
with some church, go through all the forms, be a formal-
ist, and know nothing about the grace of God, be a
stranger to the new birth. If a person has not been re-
generated by the power of the Holy Ghost, he will not
have assurance, and should not have.

Then there is another class, people who are living in
some sin, not living by the light that God has given
them; of course they will not have assurance.

The next class is professed Christians, that are not
willing to do anything for Christ. I don't believe that
they will have assurance. When we are ready and will-
ing to do what He says, I think there will be no trouble
about our assurance.

Now, Paul says, in the first chapter of Colossians,
twelfth verse, "Giving thanks unto the Father which

418

The Prophet Amos. Amos, i, vii.

ASSURANCE; 42 1

hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of
the saints in light; who hath delivered us from the power
of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of
His dear Son; in whom we have redemption through His
blood, even the forgiveness of sins."

Now, in those twelfth and thirteenth verses, it says
1 'hath" three times; "hath made," "hath delivered,"
"hath translated." Not that He is going to do it, but
that He hath done it. It is a very nice study to take up
that little word "hath" all through Christ's teachings.
It don't mean something that we are going to have at
the end of life. "He that believeth on the Son hath
everlasting life." Wherever you can find a truth re-
peated three times you may know it is a very important
truth, and He wants us to understand it.

It is to me one of the most comforting things in the
Scriptures that I have got eternal life; that when I was
born — born out of God — that is the true rendering of
that — that I got eternal life, and that means life without
end. If it was only life for six months, or six years, it
would not be everlasting life, would it? It would not be
eternal life. And if I did not get eternal life at the new
birth, if I did not get eternal life when I accepted of
Jesus Christ, what did I get?

We need not be left in darkness about our having this
eternal life, because if we look into the Bible we can find
over and over again where he gives us tests that we can put
to ourselves. For instance, if I love the brethren, that
is a sign that I have got Christ's spirit. If I love my
enemies, that is a better sign. Now, it takes the grace
of God, it takes the love of God; nothing but the love of
God will enable me to do that. To love a man that

422 BIBLE READINGS.

slanders me; to love a man that would tear down my
character; to love a man that would ruin and blast my life,
takes something besides human love. You cannot do
that of yourself. It is not in the power of man. You go
out and preach to the world, tell men to love their ene-
mies; they will say, " I ought to, but I hate them. I
just hate them." If a man had come to me and told
me before I was born of God to love my enemies, and
pray for them that persecute me, he might as well
have gone and talked to the wind. It was not in my
power to do it. But when I was born of God, I got
a new principle planted in me — the power to love my
enemies; and the first impulse of the young convert is
to love. I remember, when I was converted, 1 loved
every person on the face of the earth. All bitterness
had been taken out. To love a man that loves me, or
a man that is lovely, takes no grace at all. The natural
man does that. But to love those that do not care for
you takes the love of God. Have you got that love?
Let us put that test to ourselves. If we have, that is a
sign that the Holy Gnost has shed abroad the love of
God in our hearts, and we have the spirit of Calvary.
Because the very moment Jesus Christ was being put to
death on the cross, that very hour when they were mock-
ing and deriding Him, He was praying, " Father, forgive
them, for they know not what they do." If we have
Christ's spirit, it seems to me we don't want any more
evidence.

We are told over here in Peter's second epistle, first
chapter and fourth verse, ' ' Whereby are given unto us
exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye
might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped

ASSURANCE. 423

the corruption that is in the world through lust." When
I was born of my parents, I got the first Adam nature.
When I was born of God, I got the second Adam nature,
which is different. You ask me why God loves. I don't
know. You ask me why the sun shines. I don't know.
I suppose God loves on the same principle, He can't
help it. He is love. If I am partaker of the same na-
ture, I will have that love. " And besides this, giving
all diligence, add to your faith, virtue; and to virtue,
knowledge; and to knowledge, temperance; and to tem-
perance, patience; and to patience, godliness; and to
godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness,
charity. For if these things be in you, and abound, they
make you that you shall neither be barren nor unfruitful
in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ."

Now, how can we add to all these graces if we have
none to add? If we don't know that we have a founda-
tion to build on, how are we to add to it? It is impos-
sible. We must first know that we have a foundation.
We must first know that we have passed from death unto
life. That we have been translated into the kingdom of
His dear Son.

There are two kingdoms, and we must belong to the
one or the other. We are either saved, or we are not
saved. God didn't come down and forgive me and leave
me to perish. Christ died for me, and He will not bring
anything against me, and God justified me, and He cer-
tainly will not bring anything against me. " Who shall
lay anything to God's elect?" Satan may bring on his
charges; let him bring up my whole life. If God has
forgiven me, what do I care?

There was a man in England at one time, that was

424 BIBLE READINGS.

tried for his life. He had committed the crime of murder
and he was convicted. One thing that amazed the court
and the spectators was the coolness of the prisoner. He
seemed to be quite unconcerned. When the jury brought
in a verdict of guilty, it didn't seem to stir him at all. He
was the most unconcerned man in the court-room. When
the judge came to read him his sentence that he was to
be hanged, the man put his hand in his pocket and
pulled out a pardon, laid it down on the judge's bench
and went out of the court a free man. Sin has con-
demned us to death, but Christ is here with a pardon. I
am not going to be condemned because God has justified
me. The whole thing is blotted out. God says ' 'there
is nothing in His ledger against us. God justifies the
believer, therefore we have nothing to fear. " Ah," but
you say, " I have sinned since I became a believer; that
is what is troubling me." Now, God has made provision
for the believer's sin. If he had not, I think the whole
of us would be lost. Who has not sinned since he has
believed? But I tell you what the Lord wants us to do*
He wants us to confess our sins. Now, John says that
if we confess our sins, and that is written to believers,
" He is just and faithful to forgive our sins." I think the
"believer's sins" would be a good text for a sermon.
There are a great many believers that have got discour-
aged about sin. Now, the difference between a Chris-
tian and one that is not a Christian is that the Chris-
tian confesses his sins, and the other does not. The
true believer will go right to the Lord Jesus Christ and
confess his sins. There was a time that I could sin, and
it didn't hurt me. If I did the same thing I once did, it
would break my heart. I could not do it. What we

ASSURANCE. 425

want is to go to the Master and tell it all to Him. " He
is just and faithful to forgive." When your children do
wrong and show true signs of contrition, how glad you
are to forgive them! You delight to forgive them.
' 'They say, Short accounts make long friends."
What we want is to keep short accounts with God. Just
square up the account every night before you go to bed.
If you have done wrong, confess it, and ask God to for-
give you, and He will put it away. He delights in for-
giveness. When we do wrong, we want to take our sins
right away to Him, confess them, and believe that He
has put them away. It is very dishonoring for us to go
lugging up our sins to the cross that has been put away.
I think I can make that plain. Suppose I go to Chicago
next week, and my little boy comes to me and says, "Do
you know when you were down in this city, I did some-
thing you told me never to do? I told a lie." I am
very sorry to hear it. "I am very sorry myself, but
I want you to forgive me." I saw the poor boy's heart
was broken. It was true contrition. I take him to my
bosom and tell him, "Yes, I will forgive you." The
next day he comes to me, and he says, "I wish you
would forgive that lie." "I have forgiven you, but to
gratify you, will forgive you again." And the third day
he comes and brings it up again; and the fourth day
brings it up again, and week in and week out does the
same thing. Don't you think we are grieving God, if He
has forgiven us, by continually bringing up the same
sins and asking Him to forgive them? If God has blotted
out my sins, that is enough. Satan may bring up the
record, but the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth
us from all sin.

426 BIBLE READINGS.

Now, assurance is taking God without any "if's."
There is a story in the life of the Emperor Napoleon
that has been published a good many times, and that
illustrates the point as well as anything I know of. Na-
poleon was out one day viewing his army, accompanied
by his body-guard, when his horse became frightened
and ran away at great speed. A private soldier, seeing
the peril of his commander, stepped out of the ranks,
and, at the risk of his own life, grabbed the horse by the
bit of the bridle and thereby saved the emperor's life.
"Thank you, captain" said the emperor, and the sol-
dier, instead of taking his usual place in the ranks, took
his place as captain at the head of the emperor's body-
guard. The commander of the guard, not knowing of the
occurrence, disputed his right to the position when told
that he was a captain, and asked him who said it. His
reply was, " The emperor. " That settled it. So when
the devil comes and says you are not a Christian, tell
him who says it, the Lord Jesus said it. " He that be-
lieveth on the Son hath everlasting life. " All the devils
in hell can't make me believe that I don't believe in the
Lord Jesus Christ. I do believe. "Well," but you say,
" you don't love him enough." No, I don't; I wish I
loved Him a thousand times more. But I believe Him,
and I want to love Him more and more, and better and
better. There is one thing I am sure of, and that is, He
is mine, and I am His, and when you just get there my
friends, then you can go right out and go to work. Real-
ly there is no comfort, there is no peace; there, is no joy,
without assurance. O, may God give us this assurance!

ISAJAH.

THE PROMISES.

We have for our subject to-day, "The Promises."
I am not going to talk much, but I want to have the
friends all to be ready to give a promise. I remember a
few years ago, in our church in Chicago, we wanted a
little more life in the prayer-meetings, and we just gave
out, instead of having prayer-meeting the next Friday
night, that we would have a promise-meeting, and wanted
everyone in the house to bring a promise. We were so
afraid the whole Bible would not be read through that
we gave each man a book to read, and we got the sixty-
six books read through in one week. One man found a
promise in Job. I didn't know there were any promises
in Job. We had promises from all parts of the Bible. I
think if the people would just feed more on the promises
of God, that we would not have so many gloomy Chris-
tians. That is what the promises are for — to help us in
this wilderness journey. I don't believe there is a man
can get into any position in this world — trouble, dark-
ness, gloom, despondency — but God has some promise
that will help him out if he will only hunt it up. But
we have to hunt for it.

429

43° BIBLE READINGS.

A man said to me, " What promise do you think the
most of in the Bible?" " Well, I could not tell I have
three children, and I could not tell which I like the best,
but if I had ten it would be the same thing." The
promises of God are all good.

But we want the promises rightly divided. Satan has
some promises, and there are a-great many people can't
tell the difference. They are living on the devil's promises
and wondering why they don't grow — why they don't get
spiritual power. When Satan makes a promise, he may
fulfill it, and he may not. He don't care whether he does
or not. Then he has not the power to make all his
promises good.

Then there are promises that are made by man. They
are, perhaps, good, and perhaps not. But when God
makes promises, they are good — God's promises are all
good.

I remember, a few years ago, I went to work for a
man in Chicago, it was quite a number of years ago.
but time goes so fast in the Lord's service, it don't seem
to be but a few days. My employer said, " I am going
to send you out into the country collecting." The day
before I started, he went to the safe and took out a large
number of bills and notes, and spread them out on the
table, and there he was at work. He would take his
pencil and mark on the margin of the bills and notes,
and I didn't understand what it meant. I was to start
off on the ten o'clock train, at night. Before I started,
he said to me, " I want you to sit down, and I will ex-
plain to you about these notes." Said he, " When you

THE PROMISES. 431

come to a note and find "D" written on it, that is
doubtful. Get all the collateral you can on that note.
When you come across a note with " B " written on it,
that means bad. That settle up if you can. Then
there is another class of notes you will find "G" marked
on; that means good. No discount on them. They are
worth one hundred cents on the dollar. It was the
same promise. The notes all read the same. Four or
six months after date, "I promise to pay." All the
difference was in the one that signed it. So when you
come to these promises of the Bible, you want to find
out whose they are. If it is some promise man has
made, it may not be worth that [snapping his finger].
If it is a promise of the devil, I would not give that for
it. He is an old liar and has been from the foundation
of the world. But when God makes a promise, you can
write down g-o-o-d on that promise every time. I think
the people of the church are really dividing them into
three classes. A great many people take some of God's
promises and mark them "B," bad, and think God is not
going to keep them. Then some they mark " D,"
doubtful. And then there a few they have seen fulfilled,
and when they can't get around it, they mark them " G,"
good. When we come to one of God's promises, let us
put down ''good." There is no discount on any prom-
ise God ever made. Then we must bear in mind who
the promise is made to. If the promise is made to pay
this country one hundred million dollars, it would not
help me pay my private debts. The nation might be
worth one hundred million ^dollars more, and I not be
worth a cent. The promise of a nation is one thing.

432 BIBLE READINGS.

We want to get a little closer to some promises that
are to us. There are some promises that are to the
church. They are very good. Then there are promises
to individuals. Those are the promises we want to hunt
up. Then there are promises made to Abjaham; some
to Adam; some to Noah; some to Moses; some to Eiias,
and to Gideon. Now, I could not take a promise that
was made to Gideon. If I should take three hundred
men to meet the great army of the Midianites, I would
get most outrageously beaten and driven back, because
that promise was not made to me, but to Gideon. When
we study these prophecies, we want to find out that they
are for " me." I know there are some for me, and I can
lay hold of them from the fact that they are mine.

Now, I am going to give you one or two promises I
think a good deal of, and then I will throw the meeting
open for others to give promises. John, first epistle,
second chapter, twenty-fifth verse: "And this is the
promise that He hath promised us, even eternal life.'
That means me. That promise was for me. God offers
it to me; the promise was eternal life, life without end.
That is something I can appropriate. I can lay hold of
that. Then turn to the forty-second chapter of the proph
ecy of Isaiah, sixth verse, you will find another promise/
" I, the Lord, have called thee in righteousness and will
hold mine hand and will keep thee, and give thee for a
covenant of the people for a light of the Gentiles."

We read in the tenth chapter of John and twenty-
eighth verse, ' ' And I give unto them eternal life, and they
shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of
my hand." No one " shall pluck them out of my hand,"
neither devil nor man. Some one has said, we might

THE PROMISES. 433

slip through His fingers. But we can't slip through His
fingers, because we are a part of His body. He has not
only promised me eternal life, but He has promised
to keep me. The keeper of Israel never sleeps. He will
keep all them that put their trust in Him.

In the forty-first chapter of Isaiah, tenth verse, "Fear
thou not, for I am with thee: Be not dismayed, for I am
thy God; and will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee.
Yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my right-
eousness." Thirteenth verse, "For I, the Lord, thy God
will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I
will help thee.

In the thirteenth chapter of Hebrews, last part of the
fifth verse, "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee."
So that we may boldly say, the Lord is my helper, and I
will not fear what man shall do unto me.

Then I turn over into the twenty-third chapter of
Joshua. We find there that Joshua was old and weary,
and going to rest. If you want to get the real testimony
of a man, you don't want to take it in the middle of his
life. Joshua was one hundred and ten years old when
he gave his testimony. He had tried God in the brick
kilns of Egypt, making brick without straw. Talk about
the hardships we have to go through! We don't know
anything about it. You want to go back six thousand years
and see what other men endured. He found God's word
was true. This is his testimony: "This day I am going
the way of all the earth; and ye know in all your hearts,
and in all your souls, that not one thing has failed of all
the good things which the Lord your God spake con-
cerning you." O, let us drive these devil's lies back into
the pit whence they came. God will fulfill all His prom-
ises. There is a man that tried Him one hundred and
ten years and found Him true.

I knew an old lady that marked in the margin opposite
the promises, T. P. , T. for tried and P. for proven.
What we want is to try the Bible and see if it is not true.

CONFESSING CHRIST.

Our subject to-day is " Confessing Christ," and I want
to call your attention to two characters. They both-
lived in Jerusalem at the time Christ was here. One of
them, you might say, stood on the very bottom round of
the ladder. He was not only a blind man, but he was a
beggar. The other stood in the very highest position.
He was a very rich man. I want to call your attention
to how those two men confessed Christ, and how in his
sphere in life each did what the Lord would have him
do, and what He would have every one of His disciples
do. This ninth chapter of John is a most extraordinary
chapter. I have not time to read the whole chapter.
Here are forty verses given to an account of this one
blind beggar; and it is just an account of his confession.
We would have it all in two or three verses were it not
for his confession. It was grand and bold, that man
standing up there in Jerusalem confessing Christ. The
Lord sent him to the pool of Siloam to wash. He went
and came back clean. And the first thing we hear is a
dispute about this man. The neighbors and those who
had seen him before said, " Isn't this the blind man that
used to sit and beg?" Some said it was he. Others said
he looked very much like him. If he had been like some
people at the present time, he would have said, "Well,

434

The Widow's Mite. Mark, xii, 41-44.

CONFESSING CHRIST. 437

I've got my sight. What do I care? There will be
trouble about this if I don't keep still." But, says he,
** I am he." It is a good thing when young converts get
their lips open, if it is only to say, l< I am he." That was
all he said. You will find that in the ninth verse. " Some
said, This is he; others said, "He is like him; but he
said, I am he. Therefore, said they unto him, How
were thine eyes opened?" Now, he begins to tell his ex-
perience. He answered and said, "A man that is called
Jesus made clay, and anointed mine eyes, and said unto
me, Go to the pool of Siloam and wash; and I went
and washed, and I received sight." A straightforward
story. It is not the most flippant and fluent witness
that has the most influence with the jury. It is the man
who tells the truth, and tells it in his own language;
don't need any polish; just testifies what he knows.
" Then said they unto him, Where is he? He said, I
know not." He did not tell more than he knew. Then
again the Pharisees also asked him how he had received
his sight. He said unto them, He put clay upon mine
eyes, and I washed, and do see." He told his experience
twice. He was not ashamed to tell it over the second
time if he could do any good. " Therefore, said some of
the Pharisees, this man is not of God, because he keepeth
not the Sabbath day. Others said, How can a man that
is a sinner do such miracles? And -there was a division
among them." I am afraid if we had been there we
would have kept still. We would have said, "There is
a storm coming. I will keep out of it. I will not take
sides. I will be neutral." They say unto the blind man
again, ' ' What sayest thou of Him, that He hath opened
thine eyes?" He might have said, "I haven't seen Him.

438 BIBLE READINGS.

I don't know. When I came back He was gone. I didn't
have my eyes when He met me. " He might have
dodged the question. He might have said, "There is a
storm brewing. I am going to get out of this storm. It
is very unpopular to confess Jesus Christ now. There is
a hiss going up against Him." He might very well have
said, "Well, I don't know. I have not made up my
mind. I have not seen Him. I would like to talk to
Him." That would have been the expression of most of
us. But this man, if you will allow me the expression,
had backbone. He stood up and said, " He is a prophet."
He did the best thing a young convert could do;
told what the Lord had done for him, then confessed
Him, and then began to talk about the Master. " Bat
the Jews did not believe concerning him, that he had
been blind, and received his sight, until they called the
parents of him that had received his sight. And they
asked them, saying, Is this your son who ye say was
born blind? How then doth he now see? His parents
answered them and said, We know that this is our son,
and that he was born blind, but by what means he now
seeth, we know not; or who hath opened his eyes we
know not; he is of age, ask him; he shall speak for him-
self." I have great contempt for those parents. It was
a downright lie. They knew their boy did not lie. They
cast a reflection upon their son. They had not the moral
courage to come right out and take their stand with their
boy, and say, "Jesus of Nazareth did it." They were
afraid they would lose their position. An edict had
already gone forth that if any one should confess that he
was Christ, he should be put out of the synagogue. It
was a pretty serious thing to be cast out of the synagogue

CONFESSING CHRIST. 439

then. If a man is turned out of one church now, an-
other church will take him. If the Presbyterians won't
have him, the Methodists will take him in. If the Meth-
odists won't take him in, perhaps the Baptists will re-
ceive him. "He is of age; ask him." Do you know
that is the trouble to-day? There is many a time when
we could put our testimony in for Jesus Christ that we
dodge the question. We haven't the moral stamina to
confess Him when we have the opportunity. These par-
ents never had such an opportunity, but they missed it.
My friends, let us not miss an opportunity to speak for
Jesus Christ. "These words spake his parents, because
they feared the Jews, for the Jews had agreed already,
that if any man did confess that he was Christ, he should
be put out of the synagogue. Therefore, said his par-
ents, He is of age; ask him. Then again called they
the man that was blind, and said unto him, Give God
the praise; we know that this man is a sinner. He
answered and said, Whether he be a sinner or no,
I know not; one thing I know, that, whereas I was blind,
now I see." All the Jews in Christendom could not beat
that out of him. All the Pharisees in Jerusalem could
not beat that out of him. " Don't I know? I have been
following my way through the world these twenty odd
years. Don't I know it?" And if we belong to God,
shall we not know it? Can infidels and skeptics talk it
out of us? Has He not given us a new life, a new nature,
a new principle?

You see he did not tell what he didn't know; but he
stuck to what he did know pretty well. They could not
move him. He stood there like a man. " Then said
they to him again, What did He to thee? how opened He

44^ BIBLE READINGS.

thine eyes? He answered them, I have told you already,
and ye did not hear; wherefore would ye hear it again?
Will ye also be His disciples?" There is faith for you.
He thought he was going to convert those old Pharisees
on the spot; those men that Christ could not reach.
That is what we want, young convert's zeal. He was a
young convert worth having. If you had a few converts
like that, your church would be worth something.
''Then they reviled him, and said, Thou art His dis-
ciple; but we are Moses' disciples. We know that God
spake unto Moses; as for this fellow, we know not from
whence he is. The man answered and said unto them,
Why, herein is a marvelous thing, that ye know not
from whence He is, and yet He hath opened mine eyes.
Now, we know that God heareth not sinners; but if any
man be a worshiper of God, and doeth His will, him He
heareth. Since the world began was it not heard that
any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind. If
this man were not of God, he could do nothing." There
is not a theologian in this town that could preach a better
sermon than that. If he had been at Princeton four
years, and sat at the feet of Dr. Hodge or any one else,
he could not have got the theology that young man had.
Most extraordinary young convert! He preaches like a
saint. He preaches as though he had been sitting at the
feet of Christ for twenty years. Wonderful argument!
Couldn't get around it! He stood right there and
preached Jesus Christ. And that is what we want to do
as witnesses. Christ has left us down here to confess
Him, to stand up for Him in this dark, unbelieving age.
And if we stand up for Him, He will stand by us and
help us. This man's testimony was so clear and so keen

CONFESSING CHRIST. 44 1

that they didn't like him. People talk about 'their hav-
ing to leave the world. I tell you if you love Jesus
Christ, and stand up for Him, you won't have to leave
the world; the world will leave you. " They answered,
and said unto him, Thou wast altogether born in sins, and
dost thou teach us? And they cast him out." And
where did they cast him? Right into the arms of the
loving Savior. I tell you it is a good thing when our
testimony is so clear for Jesus Christ that the world casts
us out. The world can't separate us from the Master.
The very next thing we hear in this story of this man is
that Jesus heard of it; and he went out and found him.
It pleased the Master. I will venture to say He did not
find a man in all Jerusalem that pleased Him more than
that poor, blind beggar. He was a prince among men,
a man that could stand up against such an opposition as
he stood against among those proud, haughty Pharisees,
and confess Christ as he did. How it has come along
down the ages! I want to see that blind beggar when I
get to heaven. I want to shake hands with him, and
thank him for that testimony. ' 'Jesus heard that they had
cast him out, and when He had found him He said unto
him, Dost thou believe on the Son of God?" Of course
he did, from the way he had been talking. No man could
talk as he did if he didn't believe. " He answered and
said, Who is he Lord, that I might believe on Him?
And Jesus said unto him, Thou hast both seen Him,
and it is He that talketh with thee. And he said,
Lord, I believe. And he worshiped Him." We have
him right there at the feet of the Savior. We could not
have him in a better place. " And he worshiped Him.''
The next character I want to call your attention to is

442 BIBLE READINGS.

Joseph of Arimathea. I will not take up much time,
although it is worth a whole day. John tells us that
Joseph was a secret disciple of Jesus. Joseph and
Nicodemus did not act very well while Christ was alive,
I will admit. It was his death that brought them out.
Nicodemus did not just cast his lot right in with those
fisherman and follow Christ from village to village, but
he kept his place in the synagogue. He stood up faintly
for Him. But when Jesus Christ died, Joseph of Arima-
thea and Nicodemus stood up boldly, no longer secret
disciples, and when the other disciples left him, Joseph
came out boldly and begged the body of Jesus Christ.
The Sanhedrim had already said that if any man should
confess that he was Christ, he should be cast out of the
synagogue. Joseph was a man that stood high. He
was a counselor; but we are told that he never gave his
consent to the death of Jesus Christ. He was a rich
man, an honorable man, a just man. But the only thing
that Joseph did that has come along down the ages was
to confess Jesus Christ. When the news came that
Jesus was dead, he went in boldly to Pilate. He took
his stand and identified himself with this despised Naza-
rene, that had died the death of a common criminal, that
had died the death of one of the most notorious crim-
inals, for only the very worst criminals died the death of
the cross. Joseph of Arimathea goes boldly into Pilate's
judgment hall, begs that body; and he and Nicodemus
take it down, wash it in clean water, wrap it in fine linen,
and lay it in Joseph's sepulcher. Sweet act! Matthew,
Mark, Luke, John, all tell it. It touched their hearts to
think that Joseph should have done that act for the
Master. Joseph had a good excuse for not doing it.

CONFESSING CHRIST. 443

He might have said, "He is dead. He is gone. If I
confess Him now, I will lose caste in Jerusalem. I will
let Him go." Nicodemus and Joseph might have done
that; but they just took their stand. And how it has
lived! It was the best act that Joseph ever did. And
don't you think he lay down in that sepulcher all the
more sweetly and cheerfully to think that Christ came
up out of it? What a privilege! To lie in the sepul-
cher that Christ came out of. He might have given thou-
sands of dollars of money and not told it. But that one
act he did for Jesus has outlived it all. So when we do
anything for Him with the purest motives, He will bless
us. That widow, perhaps, did not know what she was
doing when she put those two mites into the treasury.
But how it has come along down the ages! That wom-
an that brought that alabaster box brought it for the
Master. There is as much fragrance to that alabaster
box now as there was when she broke it. It has filled
the earth all these eighteen hundred years.

O my friends, let us confess Jesus Christ in season
and out of season. Let us give no uncertain sound. Let
the world know that we are on the Lord's side. Let
every particle of our influence be on the Lord's side.
When I went to Europe, in 1867, I was introduced to a
wealthy merchant in Dublin, a gray-haired, fine-looking
man. Said he to the London merchant who introduced
me, "Is this man all O. O.?" The London merchant
colored. 4 ' I don't know what you mean by that. " "Is he
out and out for Jesus Christ?" I have never forgotten the
two O's. I would rather be D. L. Moody, O. O., than
D. L. Moody, D. D. or LL. D. What we want to*
day is to be on His side, out and out.

TEACHING THE DEAF TO
SPEAK.

The Teeth the Best Medium and \he Audiphonetj/e

Best Instrument for Conveying Sounds to

the Deaf, and in Teaching the Partly

Deaf and Dumb to Speak,

Address Delivered by R. S. Rhodes, of

Chicago, Before the Fourteenth Convention

of American Teachers of the Deaf, at

Flint, Michigan.

Mr. President and Ladies and Gentlemen:

I would like to relate some of the causes which led to
my presence with you to-day.

About sixteen years ago I devised this instrument, the
audiphone, which greatly assisted me in hearing, and
discovered that many who had not learned to speak were
not so deaf as myself. I reasoned that an instrument in
the hands of one who had not learned to speak would
act the same as when in the hands of one who had
learned to speak, and that the mere fact of one not being
able to speak would in no wise affect the action of the
instrument. To ascertain if or not my simple reasoning
was correct, I borrowed a deaf-mute, a boy about twelve
years old, and took him to my farm. We arrived there
in the evening, and during the evening I experimented to

THE AUDIPHONB.

see if he could distinguish some of the vowel sounds. My
experiments in this direction were quite satisfactory.
Early in the morning I provided him with an audiphong
and took him by the hand for a walk about the farm.
We soon came across a flock of turkeys. We approached
closely, the boy with his audiphone adjusted to his teeth,
and when the gobbler spoke in his peculiar voice, the boy
was convulsed with laughter, and jumping for joy con-
tinued to follow the fowl with his audiphone properly
adjusted, and at every remark of the gobbler the boy was
delighted. I was myself delighted, and began to think
my reasoning was correct.

We next visited the barn. I led him into a stall beside
a horse munching his oats, and to my delight he could
hear the grinding of the horse's teeth when the audiphone
was adjusted, and neither of us could without. In the
stable yard was a cow lowing for its calf, which he plainly
showed he could hear, and when I led him to the cow-
barn where the calf was confined, he could hear it reply
to the cow, and by signs showed that he understood their
language, and that he knew the one was calling for the
other. We then visited the pig-sty where the porkers
poked their noses near to us. He could hear them with
the audiphone adjusted, and enjoyed their talk, and
understood that they wanted more to eat. I gave him
some corn to throw over to them, and he signed that that
was what they wanted, and that now they were satisfied.
He soon, however, broke away from me and pursued the
gobbler and manifested more satisfaction in listening to
its voice than to mine, and the vowel sounds as com-
pared to it were of slight importance to him, and for the
three days he was at my farm that poor turkey gobblet
bad but little teats

HEARING THROUGH THE TEETH.

With these and other experiments I was satisfied that
he could hear, and that there were many like him; so I
took my grip and audiphones and visited most of the
institutions for the deaf in this country. In all institu-
tions I found many who could hear well, and presented
the instrument with which this hearing could be improved
and brought within the scope of the human voice. But
at one institution I was astonished; I found a bright girl
with perfect hearing being educated to the sign language.
She could repeat words after me parrot-like, but had no
knowledge of their value in sentences. I inquired why
she was in the institution for the deaf, and by examining
the records we learned she was the child of deaf-mute
parents, and had been brought up by them in the country,
and although her hearing was perfect, she had not heard
Bpoken language enough to acquire it, and I was informed
by the superintendent of the institution that she pre-
ferred signs to speech. I was astonished that a child
with no knowledge of the value of speech should be per^
tnitted to elect to be educated by signs instead of speech,
and to be so educated in a state institution. This cir-
cumstance convinced me more than ever that there wag
a great work to be done in redeeming the partly deaf
children from the slavery of silence, and I was more
firmly resolved than ever that I would devote the re-
mainder of my life to this cause.

I have had learned scientists tell me that I could not
hear through my teeth. It would take more scientists
than ever were born to convince me that I did not hear
/iy sainted mother's and beloved father's dying voice
with this instrument, when I could not have heard it
without

THE AUDIPHONE.

It would take more scientists than ever were born t*#
* onvince me that I did not hear the voice of the Revk
)ames B. McClure, one who has been dear to me for the
last twenty years, and accompanied me on most of my
visits to institutions spoken of above, and who has en-
couraged me in my labors for the deaf all these years, say,
as I held his hand on his dying bed only Monday last,
and took my final leave from him (and let me say, 1
know of no cause but this that would have induced me
to leave him then), " Go to Flint; do all the good you
can. God bless your labors for the deaf! We shall
never meet again on earth. Meet me above. Good-by!"

And, Mr. President, when I am laid at rest, it will be
with gratitude to you and with greater resignation for the
active part you have taken in the interest of these partly
deaf children in having a section for aural work admitted
to this national convention, for in this act you have con-
tributed to placing this work on a firm foundation, which
is sure to result in the greatest good to this class.

You have heard our friend, the inventor of the tele-
phone, say that in his experiments for a device to im-
prove the hearing of the deaf, (as he was not qualified
by deafness,) he did not succeed, but invented the tele-
phone instead, which has lined his pocket with gold.
From what I know of the gentleman, I believe he would
willingly part with all the gold he has received for the
use of this wonderful invention, had he succeeded in his
efforts in devising an instrument which would have
emancipated even twenty per cent, of the deaf in the in-
stitutions from the slavery of silence. I have often
wished that he might have invented the audiphone and

HEARING THROUGH THE TEETH.

received as much benefit by its use as I, for then he
would have used the gold he derives from the telephone
in carrying the boon to the deaf; but when I consider
that in wishing this I must wish him deaf, and as it would
not be right for me to wish him this great affliction, there-
fore since I am deaf, and I invented the audiphone, J
would rather wish that I might have invented the tele-
phone also; in which case I assure the deaf that I would
have used my gold as freely in their behalf as would he.
[The speaker then explained the use of the audiometer
in measuring the degree of hearing one may possess.
Then, at his request, a gentleman from the audience, a
superintendent of one of our large institutions, took a
position about five feet from the speaker, and was asked
to speak loud enough for Mr. Rhodes toiiear when he did
not have the audiphone in use, and by shouting at the top
of his voice, Mr. Rhodes was able to hear only two or
three "o" sounds, but could not distinguish a word.
With the audiphone adjusted to his teeth, still looking
away from the speaker, he was able to understand ordinary
tones, and repeated sentences after him; and, when look-
ing at him and using his eye and audiphone, the speaker
lowering his voice nearly as much as possible and
yet articulating, Mr, Rhodes distinctly heard every
word and repeated sentences after him, thus showing the
value of the audiphone and eye combined, although Mr
Rhodes had never received instructions in lip reading,
The gentleman stated that he had tested Mr. Rhodes'
hearing with the audiometer when he was at his institu-
tion in 1894, and found he possessed seven per cent, in
his left ear and nothing in his right.]

FOR THE DEAF.

THE AUDIPHONE

/*» Instrument that Enables Deaf Persons to Hear Or-
dinary Conversation Readily through the Medium of
the Teeth, and Many of those Born Deaf and Dumb
t« Hear and Learn to Speak.

INVENTED BY RICHARD S. RHODES, CHICAGO.

Medal Awarded at the World's Columbia Expo-
sition, Chicago.

The Audiphone is a new instrument made of a peculiar composition,
posessing the property of gathering the faintest sounds (somewhat similar
to a telephone diaphragm), and conveying them to the auditory nerve,
through the medium of the teeth. The external ear has nothing what-
ever to do in hearing with this wonderful instrument.

Thousands are in use by those who would not do without them for
any consideration. It has enabled doctors and lawyers to resume practice,
teachers to resume teaching, mothers to hear the voices of their children,
thousands to hear their ministers, attend concerts and theatres, and
engage in general conversation. Music is heard perfectly with it when
without i, not a note could be distinguished. It is convenient to carry
and to use. Ordinary conversation can be heard with ease. In most
cases deafness is not detected

Full instructions will be sent with each instrument. The Audiphone
is patented throughout the civilized world.

PRICE:

Conversational, small size ---.--- $3.00

Conversational, medium si2e, - - - - - - 3.00

Concert size, - - - - - 5.00

Trial instrument, good and serviceable, - - - - 1.50

The Audiphone will be sent to any address, on receipt of price, by

Rhodes & McClure Publishing Co.,

296 Wabash Avenue, Chicago, 111.

PUBLISHED BY

RHODES & McCLURE PUBLISHING CO.,

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<D DICTIONARY

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Full text of "Dwight Lyman Moody's life work and gospel sermons as delivered by the great envangelist in his revival work in Great Britain and America"

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